Five Children and It

My all-time favourite classic children's author

The cheerful, child-centred anarchy of Five Children and It is still my inspiration and delight

I love her books - particularly the Five Children and It sequence

If Britain is to children's fantasy as Brazil is to football, then Edith Nesbit is our Pele - endlessly surprising and inventive. But she is more than that. There were fantasy writers before Edith Nesbit but she is the one that brought the magical and the mundane together in a moment of nuclear fusion. She opened the door in the magic wardrobe, pointed the way to platform nine and three quarters. She even had a hand in building the Tardis. And these are among her minor achievements. She is also simply the funniest writer we have ever had, while being the one who could most easily and sweetly break your heart with a phrase. Just try saying 'Daddy oh my Daddy' without catching your breath. She made the magic worlds feel as near as the Lewisham Road and she bathed the Lewisham Road in magic

I love E. Nesbit - I think she is great and I identify with the way that she writes. Her children are very real children and she was quite a groundbreaker in her day

She speaks to the reader, and it's almost as if though you could hear her voice