Any Noel Streatfeild fans here?

I love her books! Wintle's Wonders and Curtain Up are probably my favourites.

That plot sounds a lot like Emily in Paris @MargaretThursday!

Not boring nor boastful @Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies !

I loved the Circus is Coming. The girl was called Santa?

I've just been having a look through (I've got a number of her adult books on the Kindle) and it's 'Grass in Piccadilly'.

She was. I think it was a bedtime story she told her younger brother first, so she actually originally wrote it when younger.

They're all good (as I said upthread) and you wouldn't guess her age except for Maddie Alone which does read as a 14yo's fan fiction, along the lines of "Mary Sue goes to Hogwarts and is immediately accepted as the best ever witch, with Hermione in awe, everyone, including all the Slytherins, think she's amazing, and Harry promptly falls in love with her and she defeats all the bad witches and wizards and saves Hogwarts...."

The rough story, if I remember rightly, is that there's a film company coming to film locally, on a local legend when all the other Blue Door Theatre Company are off at drama school. Maddie manages to:

1. Persuade the director that the main part needs to be taken by a child not the famous actress who is down to play her
2. Persuade the famous actress down to play the main part to resign the part because she agrees with Maddie
3. All other famous actors/actresses involved also threaten to resign unless Maddie gets the part
4. Everyone loves Maddie so much and can't do enough for her
5. Maddie discovers they're not filming it where the original story takes place because the owner won't let them
6. Maddie holds filming up for several days while she has a strop about #5
7. Maddie finds the owner of said place (who is remarkedly like the antiques' dealer from Swish of the Curtain) and persuades him to let them have the place
8. Maddie purrs with triumph and tells all the famous people who have just been sitting around waiting for her to finish her strop that they should have let her sort it in the first place
9. Everyone (especially all the Blue Doors older ones) are in awe of Maddie and says how the film would be nothing without her.

Bad fanfiction sums it up.

It's a pity because the rest are really well written. I'd guess she saw herself in Maddie (fair enough) and couldn't resist giving her an amazing second story. It may have been written in a bit of a hurry to get another story out after the first success.

I think Pamela Brown was about 14 when she wrote the swish of the curtain!

Well done, @Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies! you can’t go wrong with a modest £10 punt, either. I’ve had a couple of exciting buys like that but haven’t quite brought myself to sell them yet.

@CynthiaF23 the plot of your half-remembered book sounds very similar to Ruth Adam's So Sweet A Changeling. But I guess there must be several novels using aspects of that story.

This is both boring, and boastful. But I am sharing nevertheless.

Back in February of this year, I was in a second hand bookshop and saw a first edition of Ballet Shoes, for a tenner. I took a punt, and bought it. My parents took it to a specialist auction house, near their house, where it fairly recently sold for £320.

Last time I sold a book was 18 years ago. Firat edition of Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, bought way back in the early 1990s for £3. The auctioneer was the same man. He instantly recognised my parents (& remembered he'd sold L, W & W) when they came in with Ballet Shoes. He told my parents that I clearly have an excellent eye for books. I am very smug about this, but can't really share this with most people in RL.

@listsandbudgets I love the Gemma books - set only just before my own school days, I really wanted to be a member of that family.
I read her adult novel - Saplings I think. I loved it but it's got mixed reviews.

Swish of the Curtain was one of those that ds loved when I read my old childhood favourites. The rest in the series by Pamela Brown weren't as good, but mostly still great fun, except for Maddie Alone, where she needed telling to stop being a spoilt brat and I suspect was entirely wish fulfilment for PM!

@CynthiaF23 I'm not saying definitively, but I don't recognise that as a Noel Streatfield book, although I don't know her adult ones much, so it could be one of those. It sounds more like Jacqueline Wilson maybe?

I loved all those books when I was a child. Did anybody else read the swish of the curtain?

I have recollections of a book about flats in London. An illegitimate child waa being raised by another woman with her unrecognised birth mother visiting. I thoght it was Noel Streatfield but may be wrong. Anyone help? My favourite as a child was The Circus is Coming, learned an object lesson about the perils of boasting which I remembered all my life.

I saw the national theatre production last week and I loved it - and the original book is one of my all time favourites!

It was beautifully and cleverly staged, and while there were changes to the storyline I think these worked alright to keep it to a reasonable performance length and also for people who haven't read the book. I'm no playwright but suspect some of the nuance from the book would be lost on an audience who hadn't read it.

Was also slightly dubious about Madame being played by a man - she is such a strong female part of the story - but I bought the script afterwards and am inclined to think GUM and Madame being the same actor is for cost and practicality reasons as they're never on stage at the same time, and having separate actors would mean two people being paid to be offstage for much of the running time. The script says "ideally" the same person plays both so it is open to interpretation for the director I guess.

I've found you always have to adapt to adaptations - they never quite get the books right - and I didn't love Pauline being angry and causing trouble, but on the whole I really enjoyed it!

Samira Ahmed wasn’t keen either (click to read her review)

I loved the clever Drs. in Ballet Shoes - and the sound of the ginger drink, the vast Shakespeare knowledge, book-lined study and the exotic biscuits. I had the story on cassette, read by Moira Shearer.

Thanks for the review @WWGD

Sounds horrid.

I always found the quotidian details about affording the uniforms & dresses to be so charming. And as you say, Sylvia's haplessness was a key part of the storyline.

i am usually relaxed about changes in adaptations and have tickets to see the play with friends who have never read the book, so am mainly looking for entertainment, we’ll see!

@WWGD

dont worry- was already put off by what I read. I suspect the people who love it haven’t read the book 1000s of times.

I remember reading Q&A and was so annoyed by Slumdog Millionaire adaptation I wanted to storm out but ppl who haven’t read the book loved it.

And DD and I watch the Emma Watson one every Boxing Day!

Would love to know what you think @Drivingoverlemons as I was definitely the outlier in the theatre not loving it.

And @MrsMitford3 I am worried you are missing something you would love because I am a grump! And because actually I liked the Emma Watson film but had not remembered any of the changes.

That’s annoying! I am seeing it but agree about when they mess around with characters in adaptations.

@WWGD

Thanks for that-confirmed to me that I'm out.

Some of the changes are similar to the film-the one with Emma Watson as Pauline:

Such as no Mrs Simpson and Garnie marries Mr Simpson in the end

Theo was a showgirl in America in the film but don't think she is American (but actually not sure) -they do that to give her a love interest (in the film)

I just despise the modernising/politically correct bias that is put on re-makes.

The reason I love these books is because they transport me back in time to another world. I don't want it completely changed.

Particularly cross about Madame Fidolia being played by a man in drag.
I don't think Noel Streatfeild be happy about that!!
She loved strong women in her books and this is just one step too far.