Roberta, Peter and Phyllis are suddenly yanked out of their comfortable lives and removed to live in the country with only their mother and to "play at being poor". Will they ever again be allowed to have bread with butter AND jam? Why does mother spend all day frantically writing in her room? And what has happened to their father?

The Railway Children is one of Edith Nesbit's best-loved books. It has been made into five films and a musical. The story of three children making friends with everyone around them and doing their best to do good and to be good (but not always succeeding) contains no magic, but the warmth of Nesbit's storytelling permeates the book.