0:00:05 > 0:00:10At last he saw the light and clear, clear water overhead.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15And up he came a thousand fathoms
0:00:15 > 0:00:19among clouds of sea moths which fluttered round his head.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24There were moths with pink heads and wings and opal bodies,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27and jellies of all the colours in the world.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36Written in 1862 by the Reverend Charles Kingsley,
0:00:36 > 0:00:41The Water-Babies tells the story of a young chimney sweep called Tom.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43Transformed into an aquatic creature,
0:00:43 > 0:00:47he eventually finds redemption in the pulsing life of the open ocean.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52The novel tumbles you along in a torrent of words and ideas.
0:00:52 > 0:00:57It's a magical, mystifying and, just occasionally, maddening book.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02In this film I'm going to explore how a children's fable by a
0:01:02 > 0:01:07country parson took on big questions of belief and biology.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12The Water-Babies is a slightly distorted mirror image of The Origin Of Species.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15I'm going to find out how the book was born
0:01:15 > 0:01:16from a sense of social outrage.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19So the chimney sweep's boy would have gone up here.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23That's right. And you can see the handholds for the children to climb.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26And discover how a Victorian vicar conjured up a world
0:01:26 > 0:01:28ruled by feminine spirits.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30She's this beautiful old woman,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33and by her very presence seems to provide creation,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35the very source of creation.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40Charles Kingsley was a man of endless contradictions,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42as changeable as the tide.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47He was an electrifying speaker who suffered from a stammer,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51a radical reformer who distrusted democracy,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55a sensitive scholar with the instincts of a street fighter.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57And this, his most famous work,
0:01:57 > 0:02:01is every bit as paradoxical and compelling as he was.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25The Water-Babies is a hymn to the natural world,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29a book baptism in the holy water of sea, stream and river.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36But the story begins in a very different kind of place.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42Once upon a time there was a little chimney sweep, and his name was Tom.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46That is a short name, and you have heard it before,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49so you will not have much trouble in remembering it.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52He lived in a great town in the north country,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54where they were plenty of chimneys to sweep,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58and plenty of money for Tom to earn, and his master to spend.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Charles Kingsley's children's classic was born about as far away
0:03:08 > 0:03:12from the soot-stained mills of the North as you could imagine.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Kingsley first came here to the Hampshire village of Eversley
0:03:19 > 0:03:22as a young curate in 1842,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25and he served this parish for the rest of his life.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Just through the gate from Saint Mary's Church
0:03:32 > 0:03:33is Kingsley's rectory.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39I'm meeting the current owner, Ian Sutherland, for a look inside.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Here we are, Richard. This is the study.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48This is where he wrote The Water-Babies.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50So this was Kingsley's...
0:03:50 > 0:03:52- This is where it all happened.- Yep.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54- Amazing.- This is the fireplace which he wrote about.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Oh, look. Obviously much older than the mid-1800s
0:03:57 > 0:03:59when Kingsley was here.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Yes. And the chimney's so wide, in fact it goes right out -
0:04:02 > 0:04:04you can look right the way up to the sky above.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07And you can see the handholds for the children to climb.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10Really? So the chimney sweep's boy would have gone up here.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13- That's right.- So hardship was not unknown, even here?
0:04:13 > 0:04:16- No.- Are there other things in the study of Kingsley's time?
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Well, the most important thing is these hammock hooks -
0:04:19 > 0:04:22he had a hammock to sleep in after good meals.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25- How wonderful.- There's one hook up there, and the other hook's up here,
0:04:25 > 0:04:26- you see.- I love that.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30That's so... The next thing I'm going to do in my simple vicarage
0:04:30 > 0:04:31is sling a hammock up.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34It's only a few weeks ago we've actually found one of the old pipes.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37I believe he used to drop them around and get another one,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40- cos Fanny, his wife, didn't like him smoking.- Oh.- Sounds familiar.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43- Sounds very familiar to me. - So he went outside to have a smoke.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47Yeah. I can't help noticing there's this kind of roller shutter.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51This is a barricade, a metal screen, because there were gangs of robbers
0:04:51 > 0:04:54going round the local area.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57- Really?- And the local vicar at Frimley, I think it was Frimley,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00- was actually murdered in his garden.- Really?
0:05:00 > 0:05:03- Yes.- By a band of desperados? - By a band of desperados, yes.
0:05:03 > 0:05:04And he put locks on all the doors,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07and they all slept with pistols beside their bed.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09- A fortified rectory.- Absolutely.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19The life of a Victorian country parson
0:05:19 > 0:05:21wasn't as cosy as we might think.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26But for an enthusiastic sportsman like Kingsley,
0:05:26 > 0:05:28there were compensations.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The nearby River Blackwater was an angler's paradise,
0:05:31 > 0:05:35and there Kingsley spent many long and absorbing hours.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40Then, a vicar's duties allowed time to write -
0:05:40 > 0:05:45in his case, newspaper articles, scientific works, historical novels
0:05:45 > 0:05:47and, of course, children's stories.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49In her memoirs his wife, Fanny,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52recorded how The Water-Babies came about
0:05:52 > 0:05:55after the arrival of their fourth child, Grenville Arthur.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05One spring morning while sitting at breakfast, his wife reminded him
0:06:05 > 0:06:09of an old promise - Rose, Maurice and Mary have got their book,
0:06:09 > 0:06:11and baby must have his.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15He made no answer, but got up at once and went into his study,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17locking the door. In half an hour,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20he returned with the story of little Tom.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25It's often the case with writers that tales written to amuse a child
0:06:25 > 0:06:28open up a way of exploring bigger issues.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30It's certainly true of the story he spun
0:06:30 > 0:06:33for four-year-old Grenville Arthur.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42Charles Kingsley was a man outraged by the injustices of his time.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47Previous novels such as Yeast and Alton Locke had dealt with
0:06:47 > 0:06:51the plight of the rural poor and the scandal of sweated labour.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Now his attention was drawn to another horror of Victorian life...
0:06:59 > 0:07:02The young sweeps who crawled up inside chimneys
0:07:02 > 0:07:03to scrape them clean.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10The life expectancy of these climbing boys was pitifully short.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13If they didn't die from falls or suffocation,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16lung disease or skin cancer eventually claimed them.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21He cried when he had to climb the dark flues,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28And when the soot got into his eyes, which it did, every day in the week.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31And when his master beat him, which he did, every day in the week.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33And when he had not enough to eat,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36which happened every day in the week, likewise.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44But if Kingsley set out to write a children's story which turned into
0:07:44 > 0:07:47a social campaign, he was quickly diverted yet again.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51Just like his hero, Tom,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54who gets lost in a labyrinth of chimneys
0:07:54 > 0:07:57and emerges in the bedroom of the little girl, Ellie.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Looking round he suddenly saw, standing close to him,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08a little ugly, black, ragged figure with bleared eyes
0:08:08 > 0:08:10and grinning white teeth.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14He turned on it angrily. What did such a little black ape
0:08:14 > 0:08:16want in that sweet young lady's room?
0:08:16 > 0:08:21And, behold, it was himself, reflected in a great mirror,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23the like of which Tom had never seen before.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34The Water-Babies is obsessed with ideas of dirt and cleanliness.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39When the little sweep suddenly sees himself and realises he's filthy,
0:08:39 > 0:08:41he lashes out angrily, waking up Ellie.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Her screams spark a furious hunt.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Exhausted and delirious,
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Tom finally reaches the bank of a mountain stream.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00He dipped his hand in and found it so cool, cool, cool and he said,
0:09:00 > 0:09:01"I will be a fish.
0:09:01 > 0:09:02"I will swim in the water.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04"I must be clean. I must be clean."
0:09:07 > 0:09:10For Kingsley, cleanliness really was next to godliness -
0:09:10 > 0:09:13he hated getting his clothes dirty,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16he was a tireless campaigner for better sanitation.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19But this shouldn't give us the idea that he was
0:09:19 > 0:09:21a cold water and carbolic puritan.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24No, for Kingsley, water was something life-affirming,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26liberating, pulsing, full of life.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Something to encourage us to cast off our clothes,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32spiritually and materially.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39When Tom's pursuers find his grime-encrusted rags by the bank
0:09:39 > 0:09:42of the river, they think that the little boy has drowned.
0:09:44 > 0:09:50But Tom has just left the black husk of his physical self behind.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Ah, now comes the most wonderful part of this wonderful story.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Tom, when he woke, for of course he woke - children always wake after
0:09:57 > 0:10:00they have slept exactly as long as is good for them -
0:10:00 > 0:10:04found himself swimming about in the stream, being about four inches,
0:10:04 > 0:10:09or, that I may be accurate, 3.87902 inches long and having round
0:10:09 > 0:10:14the parotid region of his fauces, a set of external gills.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25The Water-Babies begins more or less realistically,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29but once Tom plunges into the water, and begins his journey to the ocean,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32we're in a different kind of world altogether,
0:10:32 > 0:10:37a weird hybrid of surreal fantasy, satire and science.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Charles Kingsley was an accomplished amateur naturalist.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48In 1855 he published Glaucus, a popular field guide to rock pools.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54Seven years later, in The Water-Babies,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57he poked fun at scientific colleagues
0:10:57 > 0:11:01with his eccentric collector, Professor Ptthmllnsprts.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05He was a very great naturalist, and chief professor of
0:11:05 > 0:11:09Necrobioneopalaeonthydrochthon - anthropopithekology
0:11:09 > 0:11:13in the new university which the king of the Cannibal Islands had founded,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16and, being a member of the Acclimatisation Society,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19he'd come here to collect all the nasty things which he could find on
0:11:19 > 0:11:23the coast of England, and turn them loose round the Cannibal Islands
0:11:23 > 0:11:27because they had not nasty things enough there to eat what they left.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Here at the Natural History Museum in London,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39they store thousands of specimens preserved in alcohol.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43They include aquatic creatures collected by Charles Darwin
0:11:43 > 0:11:47during the five-year Beagle voyage which informed his great work,
0:11:47 > 0:11:48On The Origin Of Species.
0:11:51 > 0:11:52Published in 1859,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55The Origin Of Species detonated a bomb
0:11:55 > 0:11:57under Victorian life and belief.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01But what I find intriguing is how,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05far from being threatened by Darwin's evolutionary ideas,
0:12:05 > 0:12:07some churchmen rallied to his cause.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14Charles Darwin and Charles Kingsley were old friends and correspondents,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17sharing a fascination with the underwater world.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19And their most famous books,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22which appeared within a few years of each other,
0:12:22 > 0:12:24also had remarkable parallels.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27Steve, do you remember when you first came across The Water-Babies?
0:12:27 > 0:12:31I first read The Water-Babies... I really, I was pretty young.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33I'd been a nerd since my early years,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35and I was enveloped by it
0:12:35 > 0:12:37because I always wanted to be a scientist.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39I wanted to understand the living world.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41And luckily I've been able to do that
0:12:41 > 0:12:43and I think I saw that quite strongly.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47I think there are passages in The Water-Babies, particularly when he's
0:12:47 > 0:12:50looking at the kind of life that you'd find in rivers or in ponds,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52that seems incredibly vivid to me.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56Oh, I think he was extremely knowledgeable about the natural world.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58And it's a very clever literary move,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03to put an innocent boy into such an alien environment and see this new,
0:13:03 > 0:13:08and at first sight, baffling world through an innocent's eyes.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11And the irony is, although I read The Water-Babies
0:13:11 > 0:13:14when I was around ten, I'm ashamed to say I didn't read
0:13:14 > 0:13:16The Origin Of Species until I was almost 30.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19- Professor!- That's a terrible thing for an evolutionary biologist
0:13:19 > 0:13:23to say, but it was almost as exciting as The Water-Babies.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25When you went back to The Water-Babies recently,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28did you see the influence of Darwin on the text?
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Oh, I think if you read The Water-Babies as an adult,
0:13:31 > 0:13:35it's clear that The Water-Babies is a slightly distorted mirror image
0:13:35 > 0:13:39of The Origin Of Species. Darwin described The Origin Of Species
0:13:39 > 0:13:42as one long argument, and although Kingsley doesn't use that phrase,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46The Water-Babies is a long argument about progress,
0:13:46 > 0:13:50necessary progress, in biology and about the compatibility
0:13:50 > 0:13:53of evolutionary theory with Christian belief.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57And, in fact, Kingsley had received a prepublication copy of The Origin
0:13:57 > 0:14:01and saw that it could be used as a theological document.
0:14:01 > 0:14:03And of course, Darwin enlisted Kingsley's support
0:14:03 > 0:14:05in the second edition of Origin.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09Yes. Within the preface he thanks an unnamed theologian
0:14:09 > 0:14:12and believer, Charles Kingsley, who persuaded him, Darwin,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16that there was no necessary conflict between biology and belief.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21We just happen to have a second edition of Origin in front of us.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Let me read... I won't call it the offending paragraph,
0:14:24 > 0:14:26let me read the relevant paragraph.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30A celebrated author and divine has written to me that he has gradually
0:14:30 > 0:14:33learned to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to
0:14:33 > 0:14:38believe that he created few original forms capable of self-development
0:14:38 > 0:14:41into other and needful forms,
0:14:41 > 0:14:45as to believe that he required a fresh act of creation to supply
0:14:45 > 0:14:48the voids caused by the action of his laws.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52So, in other words, what Darwin is saying there, is that, possibly,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55God had set evolution into motion.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59And that, of course, is absolutely the last paragraph almost of
0:14:59 > 0:15:01Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18Evolutionary ideas are everywhere in The Water-Babies.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22And although it's a children's book, like On The Origin Of Species,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26its unflinchingly matter-of-fact about violence and death.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32But there was one aspect of Darwin's theory that troubled Kingsley -
0:15:32 > 0:15:34if animals could evolve into human beings,
0:15:34 > 0:15:37then human beings could evolve back into animals.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45It was an anxiety that afflicted many Victorian thinkers
0:15:45 > 0:15:46in the wake of Darwin.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52In The Water-Babies, Tom and Ellie are told a cautionary tale
0:15:52 > 0:15:56about a race of dim-witted slackers, the Doasyoulikes.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01When a volcanic eruption wipes out two thirds of them and threatens
0:16:01 > 0:16:05the rest with starvation, instead of moving on, they gradually take
0:16:05 > 0:16:09to living in the tree-tops, avoiding lions prowling below.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Their feet had changed shape very oddly,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16for they laid hold of the branches with their great toes as if they had
0:16:16 > 0:16:20been thumbs, just as a Hindu tailor uses his toes to thread his needle.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23"But there is a hairy one among them," said Ellie.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27"Ah," said the fairy, "that will be a great man in his time,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29"and chief of all the tribe."
0:16:29 > 0:16:31For this hairy chief had had hairy children,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35and they hairier children still, and everyone wished to marry
0:16:35 > 0:16:38hairy husbands and have hairy children too.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40For the climate was growing so damp
0:16:40 > 0:16:43that none but the hairy ones could live.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47"Why," cried Tom, "I declare, they are all apes."
0:16:55 > 0:16:59There's a dark, even ugly, underside to The Water-Babies.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05The idea of degeneracy seeps through the book.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13Kingsley frequently breaks off his story to take sideswipes at anything
0:17:13 > 0:17:16he thinks is alien, deviant or corrupt.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22Americans get in the neck for their selfish individualism,
0:17:22 > 0:17:24popes are listed among famine,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28measles and despots as one of the ills of the flesh,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31but the worst stick is reserved for the Irish.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34Here's Kingsley warning his son about Dennis,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36an Irish fishing guide.
0:17:37 > 0:17:38You must not trust Dennis
0:17:38 > 0:17:41because he's in the habit of giving pleasant answers.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44But instead of being angry with him, you must remember
0:17:44 > 0:17:46that he's a poor paddy and knows no better.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49So you must just burst out laughing,
0:17:49 > 0:17:51and then he will burst out laughing too,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55and slave for you, and trot about after you and show you good sport,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57if he can. For he is an affectionate fellow
0:17:57 > 0:17:59and as fond of sport as you are.
0:17:59 > 0:18:04And if he can't, tell you fibs instead, 100 an hour.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11Kingsley's attitudes may have been fairly typical
0:18:11 > 0:18:13of his countrymen at the time,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16But the book's casual prejudice perhaps explains why
0:18:16 > 0:18:20The Water-Babies is well-known, but not so well-read these days.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33And yet, for every instance of bigotry and chauvinism,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36there are many more moments of mystery and veneration.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44When Tom stumbles down to the river, he's shadowed by the protective
0:18:44 > 0:18:47presence of an Irish beggar woman.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50In an extraordinarily beautiful passage,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53her true identity is finally revealed.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59And all the while, he never saw the Irishwoman,
0:18:59 > 0:19:02not behind him this time, but before.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05For just before he came to the riverside she had stepped down
0:19:05 > 0:19:06into the cool, clear water,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09and her shawl and her petticoat floated off her
0:19:09 > 0:19:12and the green water-weeds floated round her sides
0:19:12 > 0:19:15and the white water lilies floated round her head
0:19:15 > 0:19:20and the fairies of the stream came up from the bottom and bore her away,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24and down upon their arms, for she was the queen of them all,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26and, perhaps, of more besides.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34It's a startling revelation -
0:19:34 > 0:19:38the world created by a Victorian vicar is ruled not by God,
0:19:38 > 0:19:40but by goddesses.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47The Fairy Queen, the twin spirits, Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid
0:19:47 > 0:19:49and Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby,
0:19:49 > 0:19:52and, near the end of Tom's quest,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Mother Carey, the source of all living things.
0:20:00 > 0:20:01Towards the end of his career,
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Kingsley was made a Canon of Westminster Abbey.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10I'm meeting Marie-Elsa Bragg who also serves at the Abbey and is
0:20:10 > 0:20:14fascinated by the connections between women, nature and religion.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20One of the most striking things about the book is Kingsley's
0:20:20 > 0:20:24intensity in writing about female characters, and female characters
0:20:24 > 0:20:26invested with, sort of, special powers.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30Yeah. There seems to be a sense of a real feminine deity or feminine
0:20:30 > 0:20:34presence. And it's lovely that he wants to tell his son that.
0:20:34 > 0:20:35Is that typical... I mean,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39it doesn't seem typical of Victorian construction of feminine identity
0:20:39 > 0:20:41at all, it seems quite radically different.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43I think it is radically different.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46I think Kingsley was really trying to bring in a positive idea of the
0:20:46 > 0:20:49body, and he seemed to have a positive idea about sexuality,
0:20:49 > 0:20:51certainly within the family unit.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55And it's a really strong sense of...especially of women as well,
0:20:55 > 0:20:57in that time.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00That, to be pure, you needed to encounter life
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and have life experience, not keep innocent.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06I think that was very, very courageous for him.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11That sense of the woman at the centre of teaming creativity,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14Mother Carey, is the most memorable example of that.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Oh, she's beautiful, I love Mother Carey.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20- Yeah, she's great.- She's a wonderful elder in the book,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22she's this beautiful old woman who's so caring,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26and by her very presence seems to provide creation,
0:21:26 > 0:21:28the very source of creation.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32And he... There's this lovely Darwinian question that he comes up
0:21:32 > 0:21:37to her with, where he says, "Are you making new animals out of old?"
0:21:37 > 0:21:41She says, "No, I'm just watching them create themselves."
0:21:41 > 0:21:45But there's something about her very witness and her love in
0:21:45 > 0:21:49watching them that seems to allow everything to manifest.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53It's a beautiful concept of the divine feminine, really.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55- Can we hear some?- Sure.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59And then, when he came near it, Mother Carey,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03it took the form of the grandest old lady he'd ever seen,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06a white marble lady, sitting on a white marble throne,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09and from the foot of the throne there swam away,
0:22:09 > 0:22:12out and into the sea, millions of newborn creatures,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15of more shapes and colours than man ever dreamed.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18And they were Mother Carey's children
0:22:18 > 0:22:20whom she makes out of seawater all day long.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32The Water-Babies is an underwater Pilgrim's Progress.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Like John Bunyan's Christian allegory, it charts the fantastical
0:22:39 > 0:22:42and testing journey of its hero from godlessness...
0:22:43 > 0:22:45..to grace.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50Abused by his master, Grimes, Tom abuses others in turn.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55Under water, the street urchin is transformed
0:22:55 > 0:22:57into a sea urchin for his misdeeds.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01And while Tom eventually loses his prickles, he discovers that true
0:23:01 > 0:23:05redemption can only come through struggle and self-sacrifice.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16Journeying underwater to the other end of nowhere,
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Tom makes a shocking discovery.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22It turns out that his former master, Grimes, has also drowned,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26and is now spending purgatory stuffed into a chimney pot.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31Tom's terror of Grimes turns to tearful compassion,
0:23:31 > 0:23:34and Grimes in turn has a moral insight.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38As poor Grimes cried and blubbered on,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41his own tears did what his mother's could not do,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45and Tom's could not do, and nobody's on earth could do for him,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48for they washed the soot off his face and off his clothes,
0:23:48 > 0:23:53and then they washed the mortar away from between the bricks and the
0:23:53 > 0:23:58chimney crumbled down and Grimes began to get out of it.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13The release of his former tormentor is also a release for Tom.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18Eventually the water baby grows up and returns to the real world
0:24:18 > 0:24:20and becomes a great man of science.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24The moral of the story seems clear.
0:24:24 > 0:24:25Or is it?
0:24:27 > 0:24:31The last chapter of The Water-Babies is simply entitled Moral.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34And, like much of the book, is specifically addressed
0:24:34 > 0:24:37to Grenville Arthur, Kingsley's young son.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41Also, like much of the book, its tone is playful and ironic,
0:24:41 > 0:24:43and almost impossible to pin down.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Do you learn your lessons and thank God that you have plenty of
0:24:50 > 0:24:53cold water to wash in, and wash in it too like a true Englishman?
0:24:53 > 0:24:57And then, if my story is not true, something better is.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59And if I am not quite right, still,
0:24:59 > 0:25:03you will be as long as you stick to hard work and cold water.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07But remember, always, as I told you at first,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11that this is all a fairy tale, and only fun and pretence,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15and therefore, you're not to believe a word of it, even if it is true.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25That might seem the last word on The Water-Babies.
0:25:25 > 0:25:26But not quite.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32The year after Kingsley's fairy tale was published in book form,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Parliament got down to some serious business.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40The scandal of young sweeps had been debated before,
0:25:40 > 0:25:42and laws had been passed.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46But nothing had really deterred the real-life Grimeses...
0:25:47 > 0:25:48..until now.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02This is it, the 1864 Chimney Sweepers Regulation Act.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06It didn't, in itself, put an end to the hellish practice of sending
0:26:06 > 0:26:09children up chimneys, but it was really the beginning of the end.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Here's a relevant section from clause nine.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18Where a chimney sweeper is convicted of the offence of compelling,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21or knowingly allowing a person under the age of 21 years to ascend
0:26:21 > 0:26:25or descend a chimney, or enter a flue for any purpose,
0:26:25 > 0:26:28the justices may adjudge the offender to be imprisoned
0:26:28 > 0:26:32in the common jail or house of correction for any term
0:26:32 > 0:26:36not exceeding six months, with or without hard labour.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Now Kingsley in the book doesn't tell us very much about
0:26:39 > 0:26:42the working conditions of chimney sweepers, but it was enough,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44on the back of the book's success,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46to oblige Parliament to pass the act.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49It's an overused phrase, perhaps, to say that a book
0:26:49 > 0:26:52can change the world, but The Water-Babies,
0:26:52 > 0:26:53in its way, really did.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12Charles Kingsley might have said his book was only fun and pretence,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14but in real life it helped liberate countless children
0:27:14 > 0:27:17from lives of unimaginable suffering.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26Written by one of the most remarkable parsons to have ever served a parish,
0:27:26 > 0:27:29I believe this book represents another kind of liberation too.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34The Water-Babies is many things.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37It's political tract. It's scientific satire.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40It's Christian parable. It's children's fantasy.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44In fact, it's almost impossible to categorise, let alone define,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48this great, meandering, watery novel.
0:27:48 > 0:27:49But that's the point.
0:27:49 > 0:27:54Because what Kingsley has created is a hymn to the unknowable,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57an anthem of the untrammelled imagination,
0:27:57 > 0:28:02because it's about freedom, it's about creativity.
0:28:02 > 0:28:03It's about life.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Why do magical creatures feature so much in children's stories?
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Well, to find out more about fantasy and realism in children's literature
0:28:19 > 0:28:22go to...
0:28:24 > 0:28:27..and follow the link to the Open University.