Edith Nesbitt

I came across some stone memorial benches in Eltham the other day.

Edith Nesbitt was born in Kennington in 1858. In her early years the family travelled around living in the UK, France, Spain and Germany. But when she was 13 the family moved to Halstead in Kent, an area which was to feature in her later books. When she was 17 they moved to Lewisham in SE London. At 18 she married Hubert Bland. the early years of their marriage were difficult as Bland father ed children both with Edith and with their housekeeper. The couple moved to Well Hall House in Eltham in 1899. They were members of the Fabian society, a social democratic political organisation, and edited its magazine.

Edith writing’s were first published in 1878 when Good Words published her poem ‘Under the trees’. In 1893 she had a story serialised in the Weekly dispatch and then continue to produce stories at regular intervals. In 1899 she produced the first of the stories about the Bastable children and followed this with Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet in 1904 and the Railway Children in 1906. She continued to write until 1923 and in all wrote over 40 books for children, a similar number for adults (under the names E. Nesbitt, Fabian Bland or E Bland) and poetry.

Her Husband died in 1914 and in 1917 she married the captain of the Woolwich Ferry, Thomas Tucker. She left Eltham in 1920 and moved to New Romney, where she died in 1924 and was buried in the local churchyard.

I have written about the House at Well Hall in

It’s a Pleasaunce!

A visit to Well Hall