A beautifully written, heart-warming and exciting ‘real’ adventure story for pre-teens
I neither remember reading this as a child, nor do I remember seeing the TV or film adaptations, though the story was extremely familiar – and, as I have a clear image of Jenny Agutter seeing her missing father, and wringing the withers of the viewer with a line which is in the book, causing the image to surface, as I read, I can only assume I did read, did see, or both
(the 1968 BBC TV adaptation – regrettably wooden and a little ponderous, lacking the charm of the book on this showing!)
I came to this reading belatedly on the back of a marvellous book for adults, covering a similar territory – Helen Dunmore’s Exposure. That book clearly references this one – 3 children, 2 girls and a boy, a father working within Government, a secret disgrace, manipulated, innocence wronged, and trains an integral background, Dunmore’s book was set in the early 60’s, and this one by Nesbit in 1905. Obviously Nesbit was writing for children, and it is the three children in this one who occupy centre stage – they are the calalysts for all events – whereas Dunmore was most focused on the husband and wife, but, still, what struck me was an optimistic innocence in the Nesbit. This is, in the end a feel-good book. There isn’t an unpleasant character within it – and even ones which might seem, on first meeting them, to be aggressive and unpleasant – like a bargee, are only waiting to have events transpire which reveal their humanity.
Still from 1970 film. Agutter, now 15 as the 12 year old Bobbie has put on a bit of a growth spurt!
Though this does not have the goody goody children of much ‘improving’ fare for Victorian children – Nesbit had, after all, a rather complex, progressive character – she was a co-founder of the Fabian Society, did not marry her first husband till she was seven months pregnant, and ended up adopting the two children he had with his mistress – Nesbit’s good friend – there is a strong moral sense that everyone can be, and wants to be, ethical.
The three children argue and fight, and struggle to swallow their pride and apologise. They sometimes do wrong things – steal coal, because they are cold and poor, but are lucky enough to find that acknowledging their wrongdoing leads to kindly forgiveness. Lots of opportunities for heroics present themselves, and the children prevent a railway crash, rescue someone with a broken leg in a train tunnel, save a baby from burning, and unite a community. The book is a remarkably uplifting and moral one – but it is not the morality of ‘know your place’ or pious god-fearing, but can clearly be connected to Nesbit’s political consciousness.
2000 remake – and here is Agutter again – but this time as Mum!
I was also struck by the ‘reality’ of the book – this was not a book set in a fantasy world, but one set ‘in reality’. The children are children of a middle-class family but for reasons which we learn as the book progresses (I suspect adults would immediately leap to the correct conclusions) the family have fallen on hard times, and it is the mother who has to earn money to put food on the table. The children and their mother struggle over their ‘hard times’ – but they get through by supporting each other. Even the youngest child contributes. If there is ‘unreality’ it is only because (or is that just my cynicism) not everyone so clearly chooses to be progressive, enlightened and morally working for the common good as Nesbit’s characters all do.
I think everyone in the world is friends if you can only get them to see you don’t want to be UN-friends”
“Perhaps you’re right,” said Mother, and she sighed
It is, of course ‘only’ a book : one I enjoyed immensely, one with a lot of engaging 
humour, one very well constructed, one full of hope and positivity – but I kept thinking that Peter, the young boy, brave and sometimes impetuous, ‘in real’ would have no doubt become trench fodder in 1914 : I was very aware, reading this, that it came out of a sense of progressive hopefulness that events of 1914-1918 rather destroyed, and I suspect this book could not have been written 10 years later
The Railway Children Amazon UK
The Railway Children Amazon USA
I do love the original film – I was quite obsessed with it as a child, particularly that gut-wrenching ending that still sends shivers down the spine. You put the book in context very nicely – and the thought of poor Peter going off to war is really quite chilling.
Yes it is strange, I’m pretty sure I didn’t see either the film or the TV adaptation and yet I could see/hear Jenny Agutter so clearly as I read the dialogue in the book. Possibly I saw a programme ABOUT E Nesbit, or iconic films of classic children’s books, or about Jenny Agutter who after all was in another iconic children’s book/film as a young girl – Walkabout.
Oh, and thank you for the observation re Peter. I think it was the very reality of the book, and the awareness of Nesbit’s politics which seeped into me which inevitably made me think of the children grown up – and the world they would have grown-up into
Is that like the Box Car Children?
Now I don’t know the box car children – I thought it was still published as The Railway Children in the States – set in England, written and published before the First World War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boxcar_Children
Ah, thanks Susan – so, I can absolutely say, no connection at all! A one off single classic book (though she did write others, and other stuff too) It’s suitable I think for pre-teens, but I suspect that today’s young sophisticates aged 12 (which is the age the oldest child is) would perhaps be too cynical and jaded AND not subtle and nuanced enough to get some of the emotionally and philosophically complex stuff she expected her readers of the time to get. She expects thoughtfulness around class, which comes from her own socialist politics. There is no ‘loud shouty writing’ if you know what I mean. Sex doesn’t figure, and nor does people shooting each other with ray-guns (or ray-bans for that matter), bumping into werewolves or chasing Pokemons. The children do face real-life challenges however.
Thank you.
My daughters loved the Box Car Children.
Lovely review- you make me feel very nostalgic for this lovely book. I loved that original film and saw it a few times.
Loved this book as a child but have no memory of ever watching it (which isn’t all that surprising given that there was no such thing as ‘movies on demand’ then! TV stations must miss the days of being able to show the same things annually!
A lovely review of one of my favourite stories from childhood. I have very fond memories of seeing the film in the 1970s – thanks for the nostalgia!
You are most welcome. I want to read more of Nesbit, I really liked her subtlety, and as this is a book for younger readers, she was I assume writing for their intelligence and nuance
I do remember reading The Railway Children: as a child, I was quite familiar with the story landscape of late 19th and early 20th century England. (NZ children’s literature, strong now, was still underdeveloped in my childhood years.) I read Railway Children again for some children’s literature studies I did about 20 years ago; and now it’s time to revisit, I think.
My girls, who would not have read this book themselves, did like watching the 1970 film version as one of their comfort films when they were sick at home (and also Nesbit’s Psammead series). I think the points you make about the quiet morality of the story balancing some hard living conditions, with a few adventures along the way, means that this was an interesting but safe story world to enter when their physical and psychological resources were depleted.
Thank you underrunner, what an interesting comment, setting the book and its appeal – or lack of – in a wider context still. It is fascinating how differently, not only individuals, but also the SAME individual at different times in their lives, may read a book.
I loved the book and the film as a child, and I remember my godmother buying me an version on a long playing record. I can still hear large parts in my head, but you highlight many things that bypassed me as a young reader caught up in a wonderful story. Maybe it is time for the grown-up me to re-read.
I was impressed by how well-crafted this is
One of my favorites, a book that can be read by children is not necessarily confined to only them.
Absolutely.