E. Nesbit’s classic novel ‘Five Children and It’ was a blockbuster success when it was serialized in The Strand magazine in 1902 and published as a stand-alone novel later that year. It has never been out of print since its initial publication.
The story of ‘Five Children and It’ revolves around five young children – Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother, known as the Lamb – who discover a lumpy, grumpy sand-fairy (also known as a Psammead). The Psammead take a liking to them and agrees to grant the children one wish every day, but warns them that the wishes will ‘turn to stone’ at sunset. The rest of the story concerns the various wishes each of the children requests…and how terribly they go wrong.
E. Nesbit (the pen name of Emily Nesbit when writing children’s books) was one of the most popular, successful and influential writers of her day and wrote over sixty books for children, eleven novels for adults, a number of short stories and even dabbled in horror fiction. Her work has inspired such renowned authors as C.S. Lewis, P.L. Travers (of Mary Poppins fame) and J.K. Rowling.
About the author
Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) was an English writer and poet who write over 60 children’s books under the name ‘E. Nesbit’ including ‘The Railway Children, ‘ ‘Five Children and It’ (the first book in the Psammead Series), ‘The Story of the Treasure Seekers, ‘ (part of the Bastable Series) as well as two books comprising the House of Arden series.Nesbit’s father John died when she was very young and the poor health of her sister Mary caused the family to travel a great deal to treat Mary’s illnesses. The family settled in Halstead Hall in northwest Kent (a location that inspired The Railway Children) after Mary’s death from tuberculosis in 1871.Nesbit met the bank clerk Hubert Bland in 1877 and by 1880 she had become pregnant by him and the couple were wed in April of that year. Bland’s infidelities (and subsequent out-of-wedlock children with other women) made their marriage a rocky one, but they managed to have four children and remained together until Bland’s death in 1914. Nesbit then married Thomas ‘the Skipper’ Tucker, captain of the Woolwich Ferry, in 1917 and remained with him for the rest of her life. Nesbit succumbed to lung cancer in 1924.Nesbit, who also helped found the left-wing Fabian Society and pushed for democratic socialist causes, was a popular and influential writer for her entire career and inspired many of the greatest children’s authors of all time, including C.S. Lewis, P.L. Travers and J.K. Rowling. Her writing was not limited to children’s books, however. Nesbit also wrote eleven adult novels, a number of short stories and no less than four collections of horror stories.Edith Nesbit is buried in the churchyard of St. Mary in the Marsh in Kent.
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