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?

My apologies, I must have misremembered about the Titanic.

By the way, thanks for the book recommendation Cedar

It needs a 'spoiler' in the title so that posters don't innocently click on it, ffs.

I dont think you need spoilers on something published in 1936 (i bet i'm missing a joke or something here..... hmmmm???? )

I seem to remember that the servants worked without pay for quite a long time. In any case if they'd left they wouldn't have had anywhere to live.
My mother's father died suddenly in this forties when she was 17, in the 30's. She told me that her aunts all came round to the house and said to her "Now you won't let your mother go out to work, will you?" They were a middle class family (no servants or anything) but my grandmother would have been unemployable. My mum at 17 was expected to support the household.

The amount of work needed to run the house would have been very difficult for Garnie on her own.

Everything to do with housekeeping and cooking was labour intensive. No fridges or freezers or washing machines. It was shopping daily, washing clothes by hand or in a copper and then putting them through the mangle and ironing with irons heated on the open fire. No vacuum cleaners and lots of brass and silver needing to be cleaned very regularly.

I agree with everyone that Garnie would have been virtually unemployable. I remember reading in Vera Britain's A Testament of Youth that following WWI there were adverts placed by 'genteel' young women whose fiancées had been killed offering to marry and look after men who had been injured. There were far fewer opportunities for women in those days.

I reread this recently and have to confess to a 21st century adult snigger when Dr Jakes and Dr Smith have "beaver time"

Also Posy is a total brat who gets away with murder because Dance, whereas Pauline is punished for getting above herself when she plays Alice because she's "only" an actress, even though it's her talent which ultimately gets them out of being poor

Thanks for the reminder OP! I loved the book but the thing I was most disillusioned about was thinking I could just turn up at a theatre and become an actress / dancer.

I thought if Petrova could do it then surely I could.

Pauline was found floating in a life raft or similar though, but yes, not the titanic unless NS used artistic licence. I loved that book

Yeah GUM was crap. I remember as a child being puzzled that they had no money but were able to walk to the museums at South Ken. Even then I knew that was posh London.

It's amazing though how women were stymied. There's a book called "Can any mother help me?" which is a compilation of letters between a group of mothers - they set themselves up as a sort of self-help network and would write to each other with their news and with questions as parents. It was a sort of pre-internet Mumsnet. I guess this was all in the 30s and 40s. One of the women writes that she's working and married but her husband has recently applied for a mortgage and the bank have requested that she give up her job as a condition of the mortgage . The bank thought it would be better for the stability of the family and therefore for the reliability of the person taking out the mortgage if he had a wife at home. It really stayed with me. All of society - even the profit-driven bits - were focused on keeping women out of work.

That's very interesting (if rather depressing) Backingvocals. I love the idea of a pre-internet Mumsnet.

I am currently reading White Boots to the kids, and while I realise that this is basically the point of the book, Lalla Moore is just appalling isn't she? I can also feel my kids getting more and more bemused as to why it is an issue that Harriet'a father owns a shop - that seems quite a good job nowadays!

At the end of Ballet Shoes when we are asked which Fossil we would want to be - am I the only one who thought "Petrova"?

Harriet's father doesn't do a great job of running his shop IIRC.

I have that book, it's fascinating but a bit depressing.
My DGM trained as a doctor in the 1930s and carried on working after getting married and having my DM, during the war she shared a nurse with a friend and later employed a daily cleaner, it was obvious to her that she wouldn't be expected to have a professional job and look after the house and I don't think anyone would have dared suggest she give up her job!

I wanted to be Petrova as well, certainly not Pauline who I felt was a little smug. I think it was petrova, the aeroplane mad one?

GUM bought the house in Sylvia's name - that's why she could plan to sell it at the end of the book when they were getting poorer.

Has anyone seen the recent adaptation with Emma Watson as Pauline? Not sure if I want to ruin it for myself if it's bad! And what about the book 'A Painted Garden' which has a slight cameo iirc from the Fossil girls!

I love the BBC adaptation as did a friend of mine. We both sat there with our, battered much read copies ready to either turn off or shout at the TV but watched it again the next day. We were late 20s when we did this!
Singled Out is a brilliant book about the "surplus" women after WW1. It made me realise how lucky I am to be alive now & in the UK where there was no question about the need for my education or the idea of me having a job, and a well paid one at that.
As I got older, I wondered why so many teachers in boarding school novels (especially chalet school) live on site & then I realised that, for the author & her peers, that may have been an attractive option. What were the others? Being a maiden aunt & living on charity? Living in a room in lodgings (remember this is before central heating, kettles, TV & microwaves, all of which make studio living bearable).

What's the spoiler? Garnie doesn't get a job? Surely anyone who loves the book knows this?

I can't see any spoilers either, unless there's a sequel. Maybe Garnie establishes a meth empire?

Suppose it's a bit spoilery if someone who hasn't read the book looks at the thread.

But that's always a risk if you're going to look at a thread about a book published decades ago anyway.

Does anyone remember the BBC 1970s version of this? Petrova grew up to be............Tracey the silent barmaid from Eastenders!

I loved that version. Didn't like the recent one so much.

Ballet Shoes 1975.

I don't mind that Garnie kept on the staff despite pleading poverty but what bugs me is the wages from appearing in plays.
It always struck me that he waged Pauline earns are HUGE. £5 a week for playing Alice in the 20s? My dad was earning £10 a week in the early 60s so £5 for a twelve year old seems colossal.
Wish someone who knew more about relative salaries could comment because it has always bothered me!

Grey The poverty line in 1906 was about 21-35s a month (20 shillings to a pound)
Old age pension from 1908, means tested at £31 a year.

To repair a van in 1925, £13
Wages of gardener in 1925 (per week) 15 shillings
Redecorating a playroom in 1926 £3
Renew and repair a roof and timber, 1926 £46

Secondary school education up to 14 was compulsory from 1918. The fine for non-attendance could also be up to £5