E Nesbit was the inventor of the modern children's adventure story. Less well known than Five Children and It or The Railway Children, this to my mind is her most imaginative book

E. Nesbit's book The Enchanted Castle included a terrifying scene in which the children put on a play and dress up some brooms and brushes in hats and coats as an audience. These creatures, which they call the Ugly-Wugglies, come to life clapping before chasing the children. I was chilled - I still find it chilling today

Despite [Nesbit's] fantastic plots, which generally hinge on some highly imaginative form of magic - her books were among the earliest to portray kids from their own point of view. Nesbit's best-known characters, the independent-minded Bastable children, jockey fiercely for position among themselves, but they always unite in the face of adult intervention

Jane Fairfax can't fail to charm and intrigue with its deft array of anticipations and explanations of what really went on

The great achievement of the book is not to let the lovers find each other, but to have Jane and Emma learn they should have been friends

What is so terrific about this book is that you fall in love with Jane, she really is the second heroine of the novel

I felt like I was reading Emma for the first time, even though it is one of my most beloved books over the decades, frequently re-read