The Railway Children

The Railway Children was a book and film that I loved as a child. It was an authentic classic and like Heidi really touched me emotionally. (Yes, I'm very soppy when it comes to certain films.) It is written by the very famous author E.Nesbit and published in 1906. The story is about three children's father, (Roberta, Peter and Phyllis) who is wrongly accused and sent to jail. Their mother just tells them, their father has been sent away on business. During their father's absence the children's mother tries to make ends meet but their fortune begins to run out and they move to a smaller house near a railway. Their mother falls ill and there is no money to pay the doctor so the children befriend a man who gets on the same train everyday. In the end this man helps to prove the children's father's innocence and the father returns home. This is the scene that gets me every single time!

There are many features of food in The Railway Children both are presented in both positive and negative lights. When the children's father is taken away and money begins to run out the children have to adjust to more basic food and have to ration the food they usually have plenty of. 

Scrag-end is the cut found at the neck of the animal and is a cheaper value of meat. It is used in foods such as casseroles and stews. Broth is also a meal that poor people would often eat and would mainly consist of water, bones and vegetables. Basically any scraps of food that were left over.  The tone of the children's mother is brisk and premptory as she admits she cannot afford the food.

Broth

I found this recipe for broth and reading though it, it reminded me of the food Oliver had to eat in Oliver Twist. Both broth and gruel consist of low cost foods. Oliver Twist eats gruel because it's the only food the orphanage can mass produced without it costing a fortune. Gruel signifies the poverty in Oliver Twist and likewise the broth in The Railway children show the huge change and contrast from their known wealthy  life to now a struggling family. 

I have to say I would definitely prefer broth over gruel any day!

The children's relationship with food at the beginning of the novel is good. They have tasty food to eat and plenty of it. As the novel unravels there is more of an emphasis on the children having to ration their intake and eat plainer foods. However on Bobbie's (Roberta's) birthday Peter makes a real effort to surprise her and a more positive relationship between characters and food is displayed.