E.Nesbit
Author of “Five Children and It”.
This post is one of an occasional series relating to the Romney Marsh area, featuring stories and folkloric findings relating to ‘The Fifth Continent’ as it is affectionately known by the locals. Romney Marsh is an area of wetland, farmland that was long ago reclaimed from the sea, and shingle banks that straddles the border of English counties; East Sussex and Kent. The marsh is replete with atmospheric and distinct natural beauty, folklore and a rich history.
Above is an Illustration by GTP artist ZEEL of “Five Children and It” by author Edith Nesbit, who lived in the Marsh village of Dymchurch, and later a little hamlet known as Jesson in St Marys Bay.
Anyone who has visited areas of The Marsh like Lydd or even Dungeness for a holiday or day-trip will have an image in their minds eye of seas of shingle, that, a little further from the coastline, is topped with a layer of soil and a turf of hardy grasses. This is the exact landscape to be found in Nesbit’s ”Five Children and It”. The said children are playing in a gravel pit, where they discover an irascible “Psammead” or sand-fairy, who is able to grant them one wish per day. Each wish will only last til the end of the day, and (naturally) the wishes never work out quite as the children expect…
In terms of Folklore and Mythic content, this beloved book offers a humorous portrait of the life of the area at the time (circa 1900), contrasted with mythic/fantasy/historical figures like the Psammead, and the Phoenix (in the second book of this never-out-of-print trilogy, “The Phoenix and the Carpet”.
G.A.Coupland.
Find out more here- https://theromneymarsh.net/