Just re-read Ballet Shoes as an adult

[heron98]

Someone answer me this - if they are so poor they can't even afford new clothes, why don't they get rid of the flipping cook and the maid? Why doesn't Garnie get a job instead of staying up all night stressing about money?

Orlanda, I was referring to The Making of a Marchioness which you mentioned several pages back. I forgot the thread would have moved on.

Bloody, I agree, but just like Susan in the Ransome stories, and the Susan whom Lewis clearly finds irritating in the earlier Narnia stories even before you get to the nylons and lipstick if the Last Battle. A feature of the time.

Saffron, yes, and I always wanted one. So I bought one..
www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/wonderbag-electricity-free-slow-cooker.html
It's brilliant! Ok, not hay, and you need a heavy casserole to keep it warm, but it's still warm and yummy after 8 hours, for a picnic...

Tricky, I love it but can see that Nancy would have been infuriated and torn it to shreds... the idea that you shouldn't be clever but just be pleasing...

I really liked Magnolia Buildings. It was quite similar to Family From One End Street in some ways, with parallels between Kate and Doreen (or was it Doris?), both passing their 11 plus. Doreen/Doris while high as a kite on some kind of medication.

They are for much younger children but the Joe and Timothy books also showed working class families, living in a tower block. I think they were written by the same author as My Naughty Little Sister, but portray a very different social class. I used to love them when little and was reading them again to my children. Right at the end of the second book, Joe's mum has an "important birthday" - it turns out she is 21. That did throw me a bit as I had been imagining her older!

Bloody, I agree, but just like Susan in the Ransome stories, and the Susan whom Lewis clearly finds irritating in the earlier Narnia stories even before you get to the nylons and lipstick if the Last Battle. A feature of the time.

I remember The Children Who Lived in a Barn!

Also Elinor Brent-Dyer's La Rochelle stories. I remember Janie Lucy explaining to Beth Chester, who was angry & resentful at having to do so much to help her mum, that it was just part of the package for an eldest daughter. No suggestion at all that a son would be expected to do similar.

Does anyone remember a series of books set in either Manchester or Liverpool? It was about a group of working class kids who set up a band. There were two or three books in the series. I've tried googling but haven't found anything.

What about 'The Swish of the Curtain', by Pamela Brown - about a group of children who find an abandoned theatre, open it up, and put on a play there? It was made into a BBC children's tv series, and I found a copy of the book a few years ago.

I don't think that's it SDTG. There was no mention of a theatre or play in it. The kids were playing musical instruments and had formed a band. I can't remember much except that one of the characters had an Irish Dad who was unemployed and then he got a permanent job in a hotel and it meant they could move to a nicer house/area.

Wood Street series by Mabel Esther Allan?

If you go to th community section on Abe Books, there are threads where you can put in a plot line, and people will try to identify the book for you. If MN can't find this series' name formyou, perhaps Abe books can, Taytocrisps.

wayfarer and orlanda I don't think I have ever met anyone else who has read Creed Country or the Nightwatch Winter. I read and read and read the latter, and then it was in a bag that got stolen on waterloo station when I was a teenager. Wrote to Jenny Overton via the publishers and she sent me a free copy, as it was by then out of print.

And I love the 13 days of Christmas! No idea why it's not better known.

I think I knew the works of Rosemary Sutcliff off by heart as a teen. Trying hard to interest DS, 10, in the Eagle of the Ninth but it's just not doing it for him at this point

Does anyone remember a series of books set in either Manchester or Liverpool? It was about a group of working class kids who set up a band. There were two or three books in the series. I've tried googling but haven't found anything.

tayto that sounds like Maureen Lee's 'Lime Street Blues.'

www.goodreads.com/book/show/1298780.Lime_Street_Blues

Am only on Page 5 but

Gaspode Yes, Jessica Mitford, but the Mitfords were genteely poor absolutely, if you readall thebooks about them, when their father inherited they had so much but he steadily lost everything they went from a Park, to a Manor, to a House to a Cottage over a 20 year period because he wasted money. And they were very frugal. Nancy didn't marry til late and was very dependent on friends and family for support as she made little initially from her writings.

Esmond was officially WC's nephew by marriage unofficially his son.

Taking the moment to recommend The Children's Book from AS Byatt by E Nesbit

2 kids

Becky is NOT black, not in the novel

She is black in the 90s film adaptation & I did think that the ending implied they'd be sisters.
2 kids

OK I've been so impressed by the book-finders-from-meagre-recollections on this thread I'm going to beg for any idea about this one book that I loved as a child but have never been able to find!

It's set 19th c. and I think involved orphans going from relatively affluent means to somehow ending up working in a huge factory making carpets.
The only bit I really remember is the description of a huge press that came down to flatten the carpets, and in-between one carpet being rolled out and the press slamming down it was the job of a few kids to run out and pull out all the snaggy wool bits - watching out they didn't get crushed to pieces!

It was very wolves-of-willoughby-chase-ish but I've checked Joan Aitken's bibliography and none of them ring a bell.

Any idea I would be eternally grateful!

anotherone - Sounds like Midnight is a Place by Joan Aitken.

anotheronebitthedust - yes Midnight is a Place...
I also remembered about the giant carpet press and the child running to fetch the dirty fluff as the press came down. And when the manager was asked why they did not use a machine for that, he said ' childer's cheaper'.
Unforgettable!

Must read Nightwatch Winter. Creed country was so sad..

The Children who lived in a barn is republished by Persephone.

There was a book about a useless family called something like The night the roof fell in... it had a sequel. They tried to make money by growing mushrooms. Anyone?

My sister had a boook called Hazel and the Well dressing. I loved it, especially as it was located 15 miles down the valley...

As was A Country child and A Traveller in Time.

Whereas the one about the plague, a parcel if something, is ten miles across the hill...

Anyone like a Cynthia Harnett? The Wool Pack? The Load of Unicorn? Ring out Bow Bells?

And a sad one Bryan Fairfax Lacy, The Children of the House. Nasty parents.

And a great light novel by John Buchan's wife, cousin Harriet. Never read anything else by her. Anyone?

I remember the Cynthia Harnett books, Orlands - Imthinkmimhave a couple of them.

I also have a vague recollection of one where a tiny child is 'married' to a little boy, and years later everyone has forgotten about it, and they are trying to marry her off again (I think) and she remembers the previous marriage.

I'm sorry - this probably takes meagre to a whole new level!

The book about the plague is 'A Parcel of patterns' which might have been a Joan Aikin book too. I think it's about the plague village Eyam where the people decide to shut themesleve dinnthe village to stop the spread of the plague.

Loving the thread. Has brought back lots of happy memories.

Am going to return to my Larkrise books and Helen Foresters.

The plague one is A Parcel of Patterns.

I loved The Woolpack as a child - happy memories.

Does anyone remember a historical novel about a girl whose brother has a ship called The Joyous Venture?

And also one about a family where the sister is given all the gifts from the song The 12 Days of Christmas and it gets more and more chaotic?

Ballet shoes is my ultimate comfort read. I bought my 30yo friend a copy when she was down, she'd never read it and finished it in a day. Also love the Painted Garden which I remember buying at a church jumble sale for 10p. It's made me realise hat the book I really loved as a child, the little white horse, I have never reread as an adult. I wonder if it's because deep down I know it just won't be as good? I could probably recite the lot, I read it so often, but even though it's sat on my shelf I've had no urge whatsoever to ever pick it up again.

Does anyone remember a novel in which some children researched the history of their local town, and discovered that Foundry Lane was named after a civil war foundry? I know this sounds the dullest plot imaginable, but I remember it with fondness and would love to re-read

I'm getting lost in this thread, so much to remember and to list for more reading, but has anyone mentioned The Fearless Treasure ? NS at her most ambitious ( and a crappy title that I didn't understand as a child ) and not her most successful. A lot to object to but a lot of memorable portraits of different segments of English society over the previous centuries.

"Does anyone remember a historical novel about a girl whose brother has a ship called The Joyous Venture? "

YES, The Armourer's House by Rosemary Sutcliff, one of my favourite children's books (though it's her cousin, not her brother - there is a strong hint they will probably get married in later life!).

There was a book about a useless family called something like The night the roof fell in... it had a sequel
They were "The night the rain came in" and "The night the ceiling fell down".
Dsis found them in the library just after... the rain had come in Dm was unimpressed but we thought this was very funny.

Swish of the Curtains has been recently republished. There's others in the series. Maddie Along, Blue Door Venture, Golden Pavements and I think another I can't remember offhand. The dc enjoyed them, although dd1 found the references to them smoking a little off putting (it was obviously meant to show that they were "grown up")

Don't think "Parcel of Pattern" was Joan Aiken, but it could have been. I bought my copy from the school book club.

The Children Who lived in a barn is lovely. The dc were all for getting a hay box when they read it. I suggested they could live in the garage to get the full effect of it. I don't think they've asked since

The Young Detectives is a similar style one. There's a sequel or two too, which I have but can't for the life of me think what they're called. Not as good either.

And the Fell farm series are similar in style too.

Sloane - I must admit that I find The Little White Horse nauseatingly twee, as an adult (though I still love Linnets and Valerians, also by Elizabeth Goudge but with a bit more bite to it).