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Long Ago When I Was Young
An autobiographical account by the author of "The Railway Children" and other children's books, in which she describes a childhood spent sometimes within the security of her family and sometimes apart from them in schools she detested.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
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About the author
E. Nesbit
1,037 books999 followers
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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 22, 2015
As I read (auto)biographical material on British children's authors my overwhelming impression is that they all had absolutely miserable, stressful, neglectful childhoods. I wonder if all the happy, close families with siblings who generally play nicely together was what little Daisy was fantasizing about as she was shipped higgledy-piggledy from one boarding school to the next, in between going to houses that were almost always new since her last visit, sometimes not even with her own family -- sometimes in other countries. At boarding school in Germany she was so desperate that she ran away despite not speaking the language. You know, I don't think I've ever seen a single positive comment about boarding school in a work of non-fiction.
It was sad to see how Nesbit even decades later still hurt from these early experiences, and how she still treasured the remembered brief moments and insignificant keepsakes of the rare times when her mother spared her a little attention. I guess her experience wasn't unusual or surprising, but it would have seemed cosmically fairer had someone whose books brought so much happiness to so many children gotten a bit more herself.
Still, at least she got a memorial verse by C.L. Graves:
It [fear] was a dark cloud that over-shadowed my childhood, and I don't believe my mother ever knew how dark it was, for I could not tell anyone the full horror of it while it was over me, and when it has passed I came from under it, as one who has lived long years in an enchanter's castle, where the sun is darkened always... does not speak soon or lightly of what befell in the dark, in the evil days, in the Castle of the Enchanter.
It was sad to see how Nesbit even decades later still hurt from these early experiences, and how she still treasured the remembered brief moments and insignificant keepsakes of the rare times when her mother spared her a little attention. I guess her experience wasn't unusual or surprising, but it would have seemed cosmically fairer had someone whose books brought so much happiness to so many children gotten a bit more herself.
Still, at least she got a memorial verse by C.L. Graves:
You pass, but only from the ken
Of scientists and statisticians,
To join Hans Christian Andersen,
The Prince of all the good Magicians.
August 28, 2018
Memories of E. Nesbit's childhood accompanied by wonderful Edward Ardizzone drawings. Endless moving, new schools, fears, friendships and life from a child's perspective. I really enjoyed hearing Daisy (as she was called as a child) talk about her childhood. I was left hoping she had enjoyed a happy and more secure adult life, but from the odd thing I have read I fear she didn't.
September 20, 2013
Utterly charming. Noel Streatfeild (another of my favourite childhood authors) provides the introduction where she talks of Nesbit's work and the way some of her childhood experiences may have fed into that. There follows some of E. Nesbit's own reminiscences - covering her various homes and educational arrangements. She seems to have had fondest memories of her times in France and Kent. The book took barely an hour to read and I felt like I'd only had a little taster. Many other experiences were alluded to but not elaborated upon. It also emerged that she had been known as Daisy as a child - no explanation for this was given (it is usually a nickname for Margaret, so I'm mildly baffled). I do not know if anyone has written a more elaborate biography which might flesh out some more information about her life. I will have to find out because my interest has now been well and truly piqued. A delightful little book and well worth reading.
July 10, 2008
This is the autobiography of Edith Nesbit, author of many children's books, including "The Treasure Seekers", "Five Children and It", "The Wouldbegoods", and others. Edith (called Daisy) was born in England in 1858. She died in 1924. Her type of writing for children was ground-breaking and new at the time, and she influenced a great number of writers with her unusual brand of whimsy, magic, and fairy tale creatures. These writers included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. If you read Nesbit's books, you can see many threads and ideas that are used in Lewis' books and Tolkien's books.
This book is Nesbit's autobiography, and as such it is interesting to find out what childhood memories she writes about. I found it interesting and sad that her childhood was very unsettled and frightening. She endured years of being shuttled off from one boarding school to the next from the time she was 7 years of age until she was about 12. Her oldest sister was ill, and they moved from place to place seeking better locations to live. Because of her "rootless" days, it is an interesting contrast to see the families she writes about always have very strong roots and are always closely united and living in a permanent home. Obviously she appreciated what she herself had not had as a child.
While not a great book, it is interesting, and I'd recommend it to anyone who reads her books.
This book is Nesbit's autobiography, and as such it is interesting to find out what childhood memories she writes about. I found it interesting and sad that her childhood was very unsettled and frightening. She endured years of being shuttled off from one boarding school to the next from the time she was 7 years of age until she was about 12. Her oldest sister was ill, and they moved from place to place seeking better locations to live. Because of her "rootless" days, it is an interesting contrast to see the families she writes about always have very strong roots and are always closely united and living in a permanent home. Obviously she appreciated what she herself had not had as a child.
While not a great book, it is interesting, and I'd recommend it to anyone who reads her books.
January 11, 2013
If, as Wordsworth proposed, “the Child is father of the Man,” then reading someone’s childhood memoirs may help hold up a mirror to the adult mindset. If that someone is a noted author such as Edith Nesbit, then it’s hard not to see in the accounts of youthful escapades a key not just to understanding their motivations as a grownup but also for revealing the inspirations for their writings. And so it is with the reminiscences in Long Ago When I Was Young, written for publication when Nesbit was nearly forty but just before she embarked on The Treasure Seekers, the first of her many books aimed specifically for children.
Edith (or Daisy as she was known to friends and family) was born in 1858. From the age of seven, three years after her father died, until the age of twelve she lived the life of a nomad, travelling with her family and attending schools in England, France and Germany. Her mother Sarah was much concerned with Daisy’s sister Mary (also called Minnie) who was consumptive, and sought ways to relieve her chronic disease by taking her daughter abroad, leaving Daisy in English boarding schools, first in Sussex and and then in Lincolnshire. When these periods proved to be disastrous, Daisy stayed with a French family near the Pyrenees, then, after a brief time back in an English school, to Dinan in Brittany where, with her mother, stepsister Saretta, sister Minnie and (in the holidays) brothers Alfred and Harry, she had a semi-idyllic life in a Breton farmhouse, at liberty to roam the countryside.
By the last chapter she finds herself “only ten years old, and […], moreover, with not one-tenth of those ten years recorded”. After a further period on the Continent experiencing the Franco-Prussian War (“I have left myself no space to tell you of my adventures in Germany and France during the war of 1870”) the family, following Minnie's death, returned to England, to Kent, to live a more settled existence – for a while more, at least – at Halstead Hall. Here, Daisy's memories are of sunny days reading in the garden and “a little room of my own … with a long low window and a window-ledge, where bright plants in pots, encouraged by the western sun … blossomed profusely”. She had a bookcase with writing-table by this same window where she would write verse. Daisy had found her life’s work.
Reading these memoirs is often a melancholy affair. If it’s possible to gauge one’s overriding adult philosophy from recalling that first strong childhood memory, and if that applies to the young Edith Nesbit, what are we to make of the first two chapters spotlighting her being bullied, first by a fellow pupil, then by a nursery teacher? Or of the next two chapters, focusing on her fear of the dark and on her terror at seeing desiccated bodies on display in a Bordeaux church? Certainly the latter two would help furnish material for the score of ghost stories she would pen during her literary career. A further chapter is entitled ‘Disillusion’, and another chapter recounts a frightening experience for the four females travelling in the wilds of 19th-century Auvergne.
Not all is sombre, however. That farmhouse near Dinan was a bright interlude in her life, as was her time at Halstead. The darker episodes that provided themes for her fiction, for example the ghost stories (which have recently been re-published in a collection entitled The Power of Darkness: Tales of Terror), perhaps helped to exorcise their malignity. Other neutral memories find their way into her children’s books: for instance, the bazaar in chapter 6 and various elements in chapter 8 (the windowless tower with its legend of treasure, the bottomless pit and the wayside shrine) are polished up for The Phoenix and the Carpet, and chapter 10’s expedition up a stream is reminiscent of a chapter in Five Children and It.
Originally appearing as 'My School-Days: Memories of Childhood' in The Girl's Own Paper between October 1896 and September 1897, Long Ago When I Was Young finally appeared in book form in 1966, some forty-odd years after Nesbit's death. With an insightful introduction by Noel Streatfeild, children’s author and Nesbit biographer, and around two dozen charming pen-and-ink drawings by Edward Ardizzone, the twelve chapters are faithful reproductions of the instalments. The sunny times that emerge in the final instalments echo the beginning of the Wordsworth poem which includes the line “the Child is father of the Man”, a poem that Daisy the budding poet probably knew by heart: “My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky. / So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man …”
Quoting other lines by Wordsworth (“Nature never did betray / The heart that loved her”) Edith the poet adds her own comforting rejoinder in a verse epilogue: calling to mind “our old garden at home” she tells us that
There may be fairer gardens – but I know
There is no other garden half so dear
Because ‘tis there, this many, many a year,
The sacred sweet white flowers of memory grow.
A bitter-sweet ending, then, but perhaps that's not surprising.
http://calmgrove.wordpress.com/2013/0...
Edith (or Daisy as she was known to friends and family) was born in 1858. From the age of seven, three years after her father died, until the age of twelve she lived the life of a nomad, travelling with her family and attending schools in England, France and Germany. Her mother Sarah was much concerned with Daisy’s sister Mary (also called Minnie) who was consumptive, and sought ways to relieve her chronic disease by taking her daughter abroad, leaving Daisy in English boarding schools, first in Sussex and and then in Lincolnshire. When these periods proved to be disastrous, Daisy stayed with a French family near the Pyrenees, then, after a brief time back in an English school, to Dinan in Brittany where, with her mother, stepsister Saretta, sister Minnie and (in the holidays) brothers Alfred and Harry, she had a semi-idyllic life in a Breton farmhouse, at liberty to roam the countryside.
By the last chapter she finds herself “only ten years old, and […], moreover, with not one-tenth of those ten years recorded”. After a further period on the Continent experiencing the Franco-Prussian War (“I have left myself no space to tell you of my adventures in Germany and France during the war of 1870”) the family, following Minnie's death, returned to England, to Kent, to live a more settled existence – for a while more, at least – at Halstead Hall. Here, Daisy's memories are of sunny days reading in the garden and “a little room of my own … with a long low window and a window-ledge, where bright plants in pots, encouraged by the western sun … blossomed profusely”. She had a bookcase with writing-table by this same window where she would write verse. Daisy had found her life’s work.
Reading these memoirs is often a melancholy affair. If it’s possible to gauge one’s overriding adult philosophy from recalling that first strong childhood memory, and if that applies to the young Edith Nesbit, what are we to make of the first two chapters spotlighting her being bullied, first by a fellow pupil, then by a nursery teacher? Or of the next two chapters, focusing on her fear of the dark and on her terror at seeing desiccated bodies on display in a Bordeaux church? Certainly the latter two would help furnish material for the score of ghost stories she would pen during her literary career. A further chapter is entitled ‘Disillusion’, and another chapter recounts a frightening experience for the four females travelling in the wilds of 19th-century Auvergne.
Not all is sombre, however. That farmhouse near Dinan was a bright interlude in her life, as was her time at Halstead. The darker episodes that provided themes for her fiction, for example the ghost stories (which have recently been re-published in a collection entitled The Power of Darkness: Tales of Terror), perhaps helped to exorcise their malignity. Other neutral memories find their way into her children’s books: for instance, the bazaar in chapter 6 and various elements in chapter 8 (the windowless tower with its legend of treasure, the bottomless pit and the wayside shrine) are polished up for The Phoenix and the Carpet, and chapter 10’s expedition up a stream is reminiscent of a chapter in Five Children and It.
Originally appearing as 'My School-Days: Memories of Childhood' in The Girl's Own Paper between October 1896 and September 1897, Long Ago When I Was Young finally appeared in book form in 1966, some forty-odd years after Nesbit's death. With an insightful introduction by Noel Streatfeild, children’s author and Nesbit biographer, and around two dozen charming pen-and-ink drawings by Edward Ardizzone, the twelve chapters are faithful reproductions of the instalments. The sunny times that emerge in the final instalments echo the beginning of the Wordsworth poem which includes the line “the Child is father of the Man”, a poem that Daisy the budding poet probably knew by heart: “My heart leaps up when I behold / A rainbow in the sky. / So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man …”
Quoting other lines by Wordsworth (“Nature never did betray / The heart that loved her”) Edith the poet adds her own comforting rejoinder in a verse epilogue: calling to mind “our old garden at home” she tells us that
There may be fairer gardens – but I know
There is no other garden half so dear
Because ‘tis there, this many, many a year,
The sacred sweet white flowers of memory grow.
A bitter-sweet ending, then, but perhaps that's not surprising.
http://calmgrove.wordpress.com/2013/0...
June 23, 2018
Introduction by Noel Streatfeild, illustrations by Edward Ardizonne? There was no way I would miss this book. Not to mention I am always interested by the lives of children's book authors. And it's a rather short book, too. Nesbit confined herself to 12 chapters and admits to not getting all of it in (her childhood, that is). She was shuffled around from boarding school to boarding school, and had some lonely unhappy times interspersed with wild freedom and comradeship. Those good moments and kind persons must have fueled her for life and helped her endure. As Streatfeild notes, Nesbit's books had both a sense of childhood stability and freedom, something she rarely experienced herself.
November 29, 2007
I greatly enjoy the works of Edith Nesbit and often wish that more people would read her now. She's most famous for The Railway Children, though I don't feel it's her strongest. This autobiography, which really only covers her first ten years, is written in the same, conversational style that her books are written.
I didn't find anything particularly interesting or revealing in this book, other than that she suffered from a fear of the dark as a child, and that her sister was very good at telling her fantasy stories. I couldn't help but wonder if some of those stories her sister told became the basis for any of her own later works.
This book would probably only be of interest to a true fan of Nesbit's children's books, and even then, maybe only slightly so.
I didn't find anything particularly interesting or revealing in this book, other than that she suffered from a fear of the dark as a child, and that her sister was very good at telling her fantasy stories. I couldn't help but wonder if some of those stories her sister told became the basis for any of her own later works.
This book would probably only be of interest to a true fan of Nesbit's children's books, and even then, maybe only slightly so.
March 3, 2019
I had never heard of this book, but ABE Books was having a sale, and it popped up when I typed in "Edward Ardizzone" (he illustrated it). It's a short book of pieces Nesbit wrote for a magazine in 1896 about her childhood. I love her narrative voice; it is so honest and endearing, and I can relate to the things that caused her great fear as a child, having been easily frightened myself. "The immense four-post beds stood out about a yard from the wall, for some 'convenience of sweeping' reason, I believe. Consider the horror of having behind you, as you lie trembling in the chill linen of a strange bed, a dark space, from which, even now, in the black silence something might be stealthily creeping--something which would presently lean over you, in the dark--whose touch you would feel, not knowing whether it were the old woman in the mask or some new terror. "
I recognized some images from her memory in the wonderful children's books she wrote, and it made me want to read them all over again!
I recognized some images from her memory in the wonderful children's books she wrote, and it made me want to read them all over again!
May 15, 2024
Lovely little book by a wonderful author. Remembrances of her childhood. I was sorry that she was so unhappy, but I loved the stories she told. Terrific illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. A hidden jewel by E. Nesbit.
May 15, 2024
It's strange how the abiding impression of a book can be one of sweetness and nostalgia when in reality the contents are largely about fear and sadness, about Nesbit's painful and lonely and terrifying childhood. Is it that I can brush aside her feelings so easily (feelings which I can easily relate to), or is it that I read between the lines and see happier times which she doesn't dwell on, which don't stand out so vividly in her mind? The dark times leave much more of an impression – a much more memorable impression, than good times do perhaps, and perhaps because of being the more unusual are therefore the more notable. I look back to my secondary school days as being unhappy days, yet at the time I don't think they felt that way. Time has blown certain memories out of proportion. So likewise, I think Nesbit probably had plenty of good moments in her childhood but when it came to writing about it, it was the darker things, the things that scarred her (and scared her), which rose to the fore, at least for the purpose of adding drama to her reminiscences.
But maybe she didn't intend her reminiscences to be dark, to be taken too seriously, to be painful to others? Maybe she intended people to be entertained by her childish fears, to laugh over them over how irrational or unnecessary many of them were. In spite of the book being largely about sad and frightening events in her life, the overriding tone is one of nostalgia, though perhaps this is contributed to by the layout of the text and the illustrations. In spite of the tone, it is still light and easy reading, and interesting and entertaining, for all that.
But maybe she didn't intend her reminiscences to be dark, to be taken too seriously, to be painful to others? Maybe she intended people to be entertained by her childish fears, to laugh over them over how irrational or unnecessary many of them were. In spite of the book being largely about sad and frightening events in her life, the overriding tone is one of nostalgia, though perhaps this is contributed to by the layout of the text and the illustrations. In spite of the tone, it is still light and easy reading, and interesting and entertaining, for all that.
March 4, 2023
✨ “Long Ago, When I Was Young” - E. Nesbit✨
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Long Ago, When I Was Young” is a short autobiography of E. Nesbit’s childhood. She has written her most poignant memories into the style of a novel, and it is a truly beautiful read.
I was always a fan of Nesbit’s children’s books (“The Railway Children” especially!). Reading the story of this author’s childhood was incredible - there are many similarities between her childhood and her books. Nesbit took inspiration from her strange and interesting childhood - boarding schools, creek-side caves, rambling gardens one could get lost in - and wrote from her own experiences. Nesbit was transferred to many different boarding schools throughout France and England, and her experiences weren’t always happy.
This book is a wonderful insight into what shaped Nesbit’s writing later in life, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a well-written autobiography!
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Long Ago, When I Was Young” is a short autobiography of E. Nesbit’s childhood. She has written her most poignant memories into the style of a novel, and it is a truly beautiful read.
I was always a fan of Nesbit’s children’s books (“The Railway Children” especially!). Reading the story of this author’s childhood was incredible - there are many similarities between her childhood and her books. Nesbit took inspiration from her strange and interesting childhood - boarding schools, creek-side caves, rambling gardens one could get lost in - and wrote from her own experiences. Nesbit was transferred to many different boarding schools throughout France and England, and her experiences weren’t always happy.
This book is a wonderful insight into what shaped Nesbit’s writing later in life, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a well-written autobiography!
January 27, 2018
What a precious glimpse into the early childhood of E. Nesbit! I especially enjoyed the last few chapters and her description of wild, outdoor, everyday kind of play with her brothers! I understand a bit more the inspiration behind Nesbit's magical, classic adventures such as The Five Children and It & The Railway Children! "Oh, those dewey mornings - the resurrection of light and life in the woods and fields! Would that it were possible for all children to live in the country where they may drink in, consciously or unconsciously, the dear delights of green meadow and dappled woodland!" I'm more inspired than ever to let my children play in the fresh air, read them stories & let them be. Children need to be allowed to be children.
September 22, 2017
A very sweet book detailing Edith Nesbit's childhood memories up until the age. It gives you a real insight into some of the events that made her a writer, and made her, more particularly a well-loved children's writers. Her childhood memories are clearly something that she took with her into her adulthood, and helped shape the type of stories she told, with her particular gift of recognising just how prone children were to boredom, and how slowly time passes for them (a fact rather astutely remarked upon by Noel Streatfield in the foreword). It is a delightful read, although, not an in-depth one as it clearly is still meant to be accessible by children.
March 31, 2020
I have always loved the books of E. Nesbit. She always understood so well what it is like to be a child. This shows in her memoir too. Alas, that it is so short. It brings back the terrors and magic of childhood perfectly. Prepare to be enchanted. Lovely illustrations by Edward Ardizzone.
I would not bother with the unnecessary and rather weird and sometimes derogatory introduction by Noel Streatfield.
I would not bother with the unnecessary and rather weird and sometimes derogatory introduction by Noel Streatfield.
July 17, 2024
E. Nesbit (1858-1924) is a children's author I have often wanted to know more about. Her early life was peripatetic due to her sister Mary's illness, and sad because her father died when she was only three. So, I can see why in her books, there is such a strong sense of home. Nesbit's childhood memories here are vivid at times, and also scary because she was on her own so much. She persevered, and brought joy to many readers.
December 10, 2024
I love E Nesbit and all her stories for children and I did also like this her now rather ancient memoir or her own childhood although it didn’t seem to have been written with anyone other than herself in mind. She had an unusually privileged and rather eccentric childhood and education, tending towards homesickness when she was away at school. I think my favourite aspect of the book was the illustrations which are enchanting.
May 16, 2017
An autobiography written by E. Nesbit describing her childhood, spent mostly in schools which she detested and once ran away from!
January 11, 2019
Curious little book but with some nice illustrations.
February 4, 2024
I loved this sweet picture into the life of one of my favorite children's authors!
October 30, 2025
“Long Ago When I was Young” is E. Nesbit’s recollection of her childhood in 1860s England and France. She seems to mostly remember the highs (beautiful days of unsupervised playtime in nature) and the lows (secret childhood terrors that tormented her). It was interesting to get a peek into her world and perhaps some of the influences on her writings. She tells of those long ago days with humor and affection.
March 31, 2013
“A Patchwork Peek into Victorian Girlhood”
This literary scraspbook of a young girl’s childhood on two shores
is really a collection of 12 sketches by a Victorian lady novelist, mainly known for her delightful fantasy tales written for children. Edith Nesbit has culled a dozen vignettes from her garden of memories to share with readers who might have wondered what it was like to grow up in the 1860’s.
Due to her older sister’s poor health the family undertakes many moves—seeking sunnier climes, especially in France. Thus Daisy, the baby, makes the unhappy rounds of boarding schools on both sides of the English Channel. Sensitive and timid the little girl suffers terrors both real and imaginary from the ages of 7 –10, as she is repeatedly sent away from the loving security of her mother’s presence. A hapless victim of nasty kids and heartless teachers, little Daisy endures great psychological torture, rarely finding happiness in her peregrinations. The only connecting thread among these vignettes is her tremulous attitude toward Life and her deep-rooted desire to be safe and loved at home. The various incidents are charmingly brought to life by the pen and ink sketches of artist, Edward Ardizzone for the 1966 edition. Ah, sacred childhood! Savor it while ye may!
(March 31, 2011. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
This literary scraspbook of a young girl’s childhood on two shores
is really a collection of 12 sketches by a Victorian lady novelist, mainly known for her delightful fantasy tales written for children. Edith Nesbit has culled a dozen vignettes from her garden of memories to share with readers who might have wondered what it was like to grow up in the 1860’s.
Due to her older sister’s poor health the family undertakes many moves—seeking sunnier climes, especially in France. Thus Daisy, the baby, makes the unhappy rounds of boarding schools on both sides of the English Channel. Sensitive and timid the little girl suffers terrors both real and imaginary from the ages of 7 –10, as she is repeatedly sent away from the loving security of her mother’s presence. A hapless victim of nasty kids and heartless teachers, little Daisy endures great psychological torture, rarely finding happiness in her peregrinations. The only connecting thread among these vignettes is her tremulous attitude toward Life and her deep-rooted desire to be safe and loved at home. The various incidents are charmingly brought to life by the pen and ink sketches of artist, Edward Ardizzone for the 1966 edition. Ah, sacred childhood! Savor it while ye may!
(March 31, 2011. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
April 30, 2009
E. Nesbit writes about her childhood and the events that shaped it and her writing. Noel Streatfield wrote the introduction!
August 19, 2015
Nothing too bad happened to her, by today's standards, but I did feel sorry for her.
October 9, 2016
It was because of this book that I knew to visit the Catacombs in Paris. After reading Edith Nesbit's description of how scary they were to her as a child, I had to see for myself. Yep.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews