E. Nesbit: A BBC Radio Collection

by E. Nesbit, Martin Jameson, Marcy Kahan (Adapter)

A BBC Radio collection of dramatisations of E. Nesbit's finest children's books with extra magical readings plus an original drama by Martin Jameson.

E Nesbit is widely regarded as the first modern children's writer. Her ground-breaking novels have influenced authors from Oscar Wilde to Jacqueline Wilson, and over 100 years after their first publication, they remain perennially popular.

This wide-ranging collection comprises some of her very best children's fiction, commencing with her timeless tale The Railway Children . Starring Victoria Carling, Daniel Eyssen and Kate McEnery, Frances Jeater this enchanting dramatisation tells the story of three suburban children forced to move to the countryside after their father is mysteriously taken away.

Martin Jameson's sequel Roberta, Peter and Phyllis revisits them 13 years later, in 1919, to reveal how their lives have changed. Fiona Clarke, James Alper and Emma Hughes-Jones star as the titular siblings.

Also included is Nesbit's classic ' Psammead ' trilogy. In Five Children and It , Five children are granted a series of wishes by a sand fairy—but inevitably, things do not go to plan...

Cast includes Julia McKenzie, Simon Carter, James Richard, Justyn Towler.

Patricia Hodge reads the second book in the series, The Phoenix and the Carpet , in which the discovery of a mysterious egg in an old carpet heralds the start of a magical adventure. And in The Story of the Amulet , a full-cast dramatisation the children voyage through history on a quest for an ancient lucky charm. Featuring the same cast as Five Children and It

Penelope Keith stars as E Nesbit in The House of Arden, a time-travelling fantasy tale about the hunt for a lost family treasure; Other cast includes Timothy Spall and Kelly Bright.

Prunella Scales reads five stories from Nesbit's delightful compendium The Book of Dragons : 'Last of the Dragons', 'Kind Little Edmond', 'The Deliverers of their Country', 'The Book of Beasts' and 'The Dragon Tamers'. Concluding this anthology are two fantastic feline fables from Cat Tales , co-written by Nesbit and her adopted daughter Rosamund E 'The White Cat', read by Jenny Agutter, and 'Too Clever by Half', read by Helen Clapp.

Cast and credits

Written by E Nesbit

Cat Tales written by E Nesbit and Rosamund E Bland

Roberta, Peter and Phyllis written by Martin Jameson

First published 1901 (The Book of Dragons), 1902 (Five Children and It), 1904 (The Phoenix and the Carpet, Cat Tales), 1906 (The Story of the Amulet, The Railway Children), 1908 (The House of Arden)

The Railway Children

Dramatised by Marcy Kahan. Produced by John Taylor

First broadcast BBC Radio 5, 3-24 January 1991

Roberta, Peter and Phyllis

Produced and directed by Gary Brown

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 4 January 2005

Five Children and It

Dramatised by Malcolm McKee. Directed by Rosemary Watts

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 31 August 1998

The Phoenix and the Carpet

Abridged by Penny Leicester. Produced by Marion Nancarrow

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 28 March-1 April 1994

The Story of the Amulet

Dramatised by Malcolm McKee. Directed by Rosemary Watts

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 August 1999

The House of Arden

Dramatised by Chris Curry. Produced by Mary Kalemkarian

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 23 April-25 June 1989

The Book of Dragons

First broadcast BBC Radio 5, 7-11 December 1992

Cat Tales

The White Cat

First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 3 January 2000

Too Clever by Half

First broadcast BBC Sounds, 23 July 2019

10 pages, Audible Audio

Published July 21, 2022

About the author

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.

Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.

At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.

Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).

In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.