Level 1: Beginner

“Let the garland of friendship be ever green” Edith Nesbit wrote at her children’s book entitled “The Railway Children”, where she relates the adventures of three little brothers whose comfortable life suddenly changed and how time and experiences forge the essential values of life: the importance of friendship, not to make social distinctions, to give without expecting anything in return, relative significance over the material, to face adversity with courage and spirit, never give up hope, the importance of family, to listen, to respect, to trust.  

Born in London 1958, Edith challenged all prejudices of the time. She became one of most important writers of English literature. Even if she considered herself as a poetess, she had to touch other areas to make her living, standing out in several genres and disciplines: children’s books, theatre, horror stories, magazines, animal’s books, reviews, propaganda, painting, reciting. 

Even if she had to hide her female gender in other to be able to publish, she was an “Avant-Garde” woman. She dressed men’s clothes, never used a corset, wore short hair, smoked in public, rode a strange and new machine called bicycle and allowed her children to run barefoot. She influenced many other wonderful writers, JK Rowling among them, that’s why she is considered, nothing more and nothing less, as Harry Potter’s grandmother.