Third Drug, The

Edith Nesbit was born on the 15th August 1858 in Kennington, then part of Surrey. Due to the health issues and tuberculosis of her sister Mary, Nesbit’s early life was one of constant changes of house both in England and on the continent. At age 17, Nesbit met Hubert Bland and they married three years later-whilst she was 7 months pregnant. Bland also kept his affair with another woman going throughout their marriage and the two children of that relationship were raised by Nesbit as well as her own three with Bland. Together they were founder members of the Fabian Society in 1884 naming their son Fabian in its honour. They also edited the Society's journal; ‘Today’. Nesbit was an active lecturer and prolific writer on socialism during those years but gradually her work for them dwindled as her career as a children’s writer grew. Her most famous success was ‘The Railway Children’ but she was also very prolific and greatly accomplished in poetry, short stories-especially her macabre ghost and supernatural stories-and novels for adults. In February 1917, some three years after the death of Bland she married Thomas ‘the Skipper’ Tucker in Woolwich, where he was a ship's engineer on the Woolwich Ferry. Edith Nesbit died from lung cancer on the 4th May 1924 at her house ‘The Long Boat’ at Jesson, St Mary's Bay, New Romney in Kent. She was 65.