Any Noel Streatfeild fans here?

@EducatingArti - Barbara Willard’s Mantlemass series is wonderful.

One of my favourite Streatfeilds as a child was The Fearless Treasure, a sort of potted history of England told through the eyes of a group of children from different backgrounds who each travel back in time to the past of their families. Not sure how well it would have dated.

Ah what a lovely thread. I'm glad The Bell Family was mentioned, I have a huge soft spot for Miss Virginia Bell. Ballet Shoes was my first and probably closest to my heart but Curtain Up is also a massive favourite.

Someone mentioned Saplings - has anyone read Grass in Piccadilly? I like it, and such an interesting evocation of live in London straight after the war with all the upheavals in society.

The Bell Family I think was originally a radio series. It has many of the familiar Streatfeild features : a vicarage family; cute dog; faithful old nanny etc. It’s a very engaging book, but maybe not as well known as some of the others because it does feel like she’s recycling stuff a bit.

I’m a massive fan and have a whole shelf full, including both British and American versions of curtain up. I think my favourites are white boots, the circus is coming, curtain up and one that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned yet - the bell family.

I literally have a tattoo of Pauline as the Fairy Godmother, from the lovely illustrations by Ruth Gervis (Noel Streatfeild's sister) in Ballet Shoes.

The Children Who Lived in a Barn is the one where they make a hay oven. Rereading it as an adult I was horrified by the way their parents go off and leave them!

I remember The Children who Lived in a Barn too. I was always wanting to build dens/clubhouses etc and the idea of living in a barn appealed massively but yes, I agree, a safeguarding nightmare!

I remember that, I think! The oldest sister got up at 4am so her helpful neighbour could show her how to do washday, and the villagers were all conspiring to hide them from the social workers.

This thread has made me feel really emotional and nostalgic. Ballet Shoes was the first book I bought from our school bookshop and the illustrations will live in my mind forever!

I also had a very old copy of Party Frock that was my mum’s.

Such wonderful stories where life isn’t fair and children aren’t always understood (poor Rachel when her mum dies). When the Siren Wailed- I must have taken that home as my reading book every other week!

"Someone was saying once may be George from the Famous Five was really non binary and I wanted to scream. These are children's books, what's wrong with keeping her as an old fashioned tomboy!"
I had this very discussion with a (male) colleague the other day, who told me that George was trans! I said that she wasn't, and that was a really sexist and stereotypical way of talking about girls who did not want to be confined to or defined by traditionally feminine roles, and that nowhere did the book or the author suggest that she actually wasn't a girl. It makes me so cross!

Ooh, The Wool-Pack! Love that book!

Did anyone else ever read 'The Children Who Lived In A Barn'? It's one of my all-time favourites, even though all I see as an adult are hideous safeguarding failures.

Happily reliving my childhood here! Loved Noel Stretfeild, Malcolm Saville, Geoffrey and Henry Trease as well as Rosemary Sutcliffe, Barbara Willard and Cynthia Harnett.

Yes yes yes!

Loved the Shoe books. Still have a copy of Ballet Shoes.

Yes. Still read then now and buy up copies if I find them in second hand bookshops. Huge fan of White Boots in particular. Also Lorna Hill and A Dream of Sadlers Wells. Was madly in love with Sebastian.

I loved Thursdays Child but never read Far to Go because I can't stand when baddies who you think are dealt with in the first of the series bloody return.

Yes those ones dd2 and ds loved. DD1 had a very different taste.

The all liked Enid Blyton and Geoffrey Trease too, and ds was totally obsessed with Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine series for a while.

She is one of the few of my childhood favourites that my dd liked too. Monica Edwards and Antonia Forest worked as well.

It's interesting to see how the Wicharts was sanitised - the illegitimate sisters becoming foundlings and so on.

The Whicharts is interesting; it's a brutally realistic adult version of Ballet Shoes.

I found it a bit sordid.

My favourite Jean Ure is probably Play Nimrod for Him, about the intense friendship between two teenage boys. Very well written. Sad though.

I remember in year 5 our teacher challenged us to think of a word which didn't follow the I before e rule.

I promptly came up with "Streatfeild" and he agreed but said it didn't really count as it was a name.

I think one of the books I have (maybe "The house in Cornwall" - it has a lot of errors on the cover, including misspelling of "Sorrel" and incorrectly calling the uncle "Quentin" ) does misspell her name as" field".

@EBearhug When I was in 4th grade (US), my teacher had us write on the board our favorite author. I wrote, "Noel Streatfeild." She said, "Oh, I see a mistake on the board." I was certain I was correct, but, being 9, I did what the teacher said and went up to the board and changed the spelling. I was so upset when I went home and looked at all my Noel StreatfEIld books. I knew I was right.

The thing I could never get over is her inability to spell field. 😉