The Water babies - Charles Kingsley

Big Kids-Classics/Literature

Author/Publisher
NA

Format
Paperback

Pages
160 pages

Book Description
Whilst cleaning a Chimney, Tom, emerges in the bedroom of Ellie, who mistakes him for a thief. He runs away, and hot and bothered he slips into a cooling stream, falls asleep and becomes a water baby. After an arduous quest to the other-end-of-nowhere he achieves his heart's desire.

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) led quite a wild life at university but, in 1842, he followed in his father's footsteps and was ordained as a priest. He was a Christian Socialist and spent his life campaigning for such things as better education for girls, and improving the living conditions of the working class. Victorian society was very inflexible and Kingsley was soon branded as a radical. His patriotic attitude to the Crimean War (1854-6), made him acceptable again and he became Chaplain to Queen Victoria. Later, royal influence led to his appointment as a Professor of History at Cambridge University. During his out of favor years he was a devoted priest in Hampshire and put his beliefs into practice. His work as a parish priest and his lecture tours as a Christian Socialist, always came first, leaving his writing to take second place.