What Is “The Railway Children” About?

This 1906 novel is the most famous and enduring of all E. Nesbitt's children's books. A middle-class family are left poor and unprotected when their father is sent to prison. They take a small house near a railway line, and the railway station and its inhabitants become central to the children's lives. Through friendship with the railway porter Perks and other local people, they learn valuable life lessons. Peter, for instance, the middle child, takes coal from the station heap to keep the family warm. When Perks catches him he believes that he wasn't stealing but "mining" because he only took coal from the middle of the heap, not the edge. The children learn a more realistic perspective on life as well as eventually becoming valuable members of their new community.

The novel was later made into a successful children's film which launched the career of Jenny Agutter as Bobbie, the eldest of the "railway children."

Add Comment

Report