The Railway Children conjures up images of Bobbie, played in the 1970s film by a young Jenny Agutter, flagging down a steam train with her red petticoat to stop the locomotive from driving straight into a landslide.
But to the book’s author Edith Nesbit, the story may have hearkened to a secure childhood she seldom knew.
Edith went on to lead an unconventional life. She was a founder member of the Fabian Society, who smoked constantly and had an open marriage with her husband Hubert Bland.
As a stage version of The Railway Children opens in London, Ritula Shah looks at the life of this most bohemian of characters.
