Graham Greene was born in 1904. On coming down from Balliol College, Oxford, he worked for four years as sub-editor on The Times. He established his reputation with his fourth novel, Stamboul Train. In 1935 he made a journey across Liberia, described in Journey Without Maps, and on his return was appointed film critic of the Spectator. In 1926 he had been received into the Roman Catholic Church and visited Mexico in 1938 to report on the religious persecution there. As a result he wrote The Lawless Roads and, later, his famous novel The Power and the Glory. Brighton Rock was published in 1938 and in 1940 he became literary editor of the Spectator. The next year he undertook work for the Foreign Office and was stationed in Sierra Leone from 1941 to 1943. This later produced the novel The Heart of the Matter, set in West Africa. As well as his many novels, Graham Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, three books of autobiography - A Sort of Life, Ways of Escape and A World of My Own (published posthumously) - two of biography and four books for children. He also contributed hundreds of essays, and film and book reviews, some of which appear in the collections Reflections and Mornings in the Dark. Many of his novels and short stories have been filmed and The Third Man was written as a film treatment. Graham Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. He died in April 1991. Edward Ardizzone was born in 1900 and brought up in Suffolk near East Bergholt and went to school in Ipswich. As a young boy he was fascinated by the vibrancy of the small Suffolk ports such as Ipswich, then frequented by the coastal steamers that travelled from port to port. These childhood observations were the foundation of his Little Tim books, first published in 1936. One can only speculate as to whether his later tales of 'Little Tim' were part of the young Ardizzone's fantasy. He was appointed official war artist in 1940 by Sir Kenneth Clark, director of the National Gallery, London, 1933-1945. With his extraordinary visual memory he recorded the horror of the battlefield as well as the lighter moments and camaraderie that punctuated the misery and fear. Initially covering the Blitz in London he later was stationed with the British expeditionary forces notating and sketching the D-Day landings, North Africa and Sicily where he inadvertently took Taormina armed with nothing more than a sketchpad and a paintbrush. Between 1929 and his death in 1979 Ardizzone illustrated a large number of books, and wrote and illustrated many more including the well loved Little Tim series, Johnny the Clockmaker, Diana and her Rhinoceros, Paul the Hero of the Fire; and with his cousin Christianna Brand, created Nurse Matilda, later familiar to many as Nanny McPhee.
Early one morning the little train wakes up in his home town, Little Snoreing, and decides to go on an adventure. He chugs and puffs his way through villages, past castles and over bridges. But soon he gets tired, and the big city is a bit scary. There's only one thing for it; he'll have to head back! The Little Train, Graham Greene's first children's book, was originally published in 1946 with Ardizzone's illustrations commissioned 28 year later. First published by The Bodley Head in 1974, this new edition brings the classic little train back to life for a whole new generation.