The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Being the Adventures of the Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune - Softcover

EDITH NESBIT was a mischievous child who grew up into an unconventional adult. With her husband, Hubert Bland, she was one of the founder members of the socialist Fabian Society; their household became a centre of the socialist and literary circles of the times. E. Nesbit turned late to children's writing. Her first children's book, THE TREASURE SEEKERS, was published in 1899 to great acclaim. Other books featuring the Bastable children followed, and a series of magical fantasy books, including FIVE CHILDREN AND IT also became very popular. THE RAILWAY CHILDREN was first published monthly in the LONDON MAGAZINE in 1905, and published as a book in 1906 and has been in print ever since.

She's the children's writer with whom I most identify. She said, "By some lucky chance, I remember exactly how I felt and thought at 11." That struck a chord with me. The Story of the Treasure Seekers was a breakthrough children's book. Oswald is such a very real narrator, at a time when most people were writing morality plays for children * J. K. Rowling * If Britain is to children's fantasy as Brazil is to football, then Edith Nesbit is our Pele - endlessly surprising and inventive. But she is more than that. There were fantasy writers before Edith Nesbit but she is the one that brought the magical and the mundane together in a moment of nuclear fusion. She opened the door in the magic wardrobe, pointed the way to platform nine and three quarters. She even had a hand in building the Tardis. And these are among her minor achievements. She is also simply the funniest writer we have ever had, while being the one who could most easily and sweetly break your heart with a phrase. Just try saying "Daddy oh my Daddy" without catching your breath. She made the magic worlds feel as near as the Lewisham Road and she bathed the Lewisham Road in magic -- Frank Cottrell-Boyce I loved the direct first-person narrative in the clear, forthright tones of Oswald Bastable * Jacqueline Wilson * I love E. Nesbit * Neil Gaiman *