Elizabeth Nesbit was born in London in 1858. Her father died when she was four years old and she spent much of her childhood traveling around England, France, Germany, and Spain with her mother and sister Mary, in an attempt to cure Mary of tuberculosis. Elizabeth married Hubert Bland in 1880 and they went on to become two of the founding members of the Fabian Society. She wrote many stories and poems for both children and adults, including the much-loved Five Children and It, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, and The Railway Children. Elizabeth Nesbit died in 1924 and is buried in Kent.