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?

Scarlet Pimpernel, anyone?

I adore Charlotte Sometimes, fabulous book.

I don't think I have read the Youngest Lady in Waiting, but I have just ordered it - hurrah for new books!

I will check out the Mantlemass series, nooka - thanks!

I loved the Scarlet Pimpernel. My parents had a lot of hardback, beautifully bound books. Dickens, SP, Oscar Wilde, and my particular favourite, Diary of a Nobody.

When I was about 14 I went through them all. Never got on with the Brontes though.

The Mantlemass betrothal is the Lark and the Laurel. Has a twist at the end. They are quite hard to get hold of now.

I've found it on Amazon - looks like a newish reprint - though there are second hand copies available too - for under £1 - so I have ordered one, and will see if it is the one I remember.

Many thanks for the information, mother.

Anyone else read the Sula books by Lavinia Derwent? S1 wasn't into it but s2 (who's a more gentle soul ) was really taken by it. The boy, the island and the animals.

They were about 8 and 10 at the time.

Little Grey Men? Magic realism. I read at the same time as Tarka..
The Sword in the Stone and The Master( scary)
Mistress Masham's repose? More magic realism...
Bookshop on the quay, was that Patricia Lynch?
Grey Goose if Kilneven... magic realism

Little Grey Rabbit; Sam Pig; Snug and Serena - all enchanting younger age books by Alison Uttley.

Five Dolls in a House by Helen Clare, who also wrote a book I loved called Merlin's Magic which I kept borrowing from the library.

hagrus I loved Five Dolls in a House too, also another book by Helen Clare, Seven White Pebbles, but that's £25 on Amazon now.

STDG so when you were a student nurse you didn't wear your cape inside out so the scarlet lining showed, on Christmas Eve, and go round the wards singing carols? I can see how disappointing that would have been!

Oh little grey rabbit, I adore them.

And some if the Beatrix potters. The tailor of Gloucester, mrs Tiggywinkle..

Bloody - I corresponded with the author of five dolls in a house when I was young. I went to tea at her house and saw the original. 'Monkey on the roof'. She was very kind.

Five Dolls in a House!

My primary teacher gave me her copy as a memento when we moved out of the area. I had it for years but lost it in my last move .

Oh more lovely books that I must look up. Love this thread!

oh lucky you, Bluepowder! Empress - would you buy the same edition again, or wouldn't it be the same?

Oh I bet my mum still has Five Dolls in A House - loved Vanessa and her pretensions, and the rude monkey!

Don't know, Bridget.

If I saw it somewhere I probably would, though.

I have 5 dolls in a house. Got it a couple of years ago for 10p!

It's interesting, I was reading an article by a publisher who was saying that children don't like descriptions nowadays and want fast moving dialogue. But when I read out loud to ds, then lots of dialogue is really hard.
Wish for a Pony (Monica Edwards) whereas is a good book for reading to yourself, it's hopeless for reading out loud. Too much dialogue of.
"What do you think?"
"Oh MUMMY!"
"Like it?"
"I can't wait." etc.
Her subsequent books are quite high on descriptions and are much better to read out loud-and ds prefers them (although they're also more adventurous, which he prefers).

ooh, marking place - I've found this thread again! Glad it's been moved to Children's Books.

Garnie has a job! She runs a boarding house! That's a job. She has to plan and budget all the meals for all the boarders, keep their rooms nice (not the actual cleaning, but repairing furniture, buying new linen etc). She has to deal with the money, invoicing, tax returns, receipts etc. (And given how shit she is at sums, I bet that takes her forever). She has to deal with complaints and all the upkeep of the house (big old house on the Cromwell Road, bet it leaks like hell.)
She also has enough servants to deal with one young woman and three children and they're now having to cook and clean for one young woman, three children, Nana, and five boarders. Have you seen how enormous those Cromwell Road houses are? That's a ridiculous amount of work for two servants when you consider there's no hoovers, no dishwasher, no washing machine (though they probably used a laundry service), and you can't let your standards slip because there are paying guests. I bet Garnie does a hell of a lot of bed-making and plate-clearing and curtain-sewing and mail-delivering and whathaveyou.
She's also a mum to three children with ridiculous professional schedules. It's stated that she makes a lot of their clothes from hand. And she's trying to do an inventory of the whole house. Give her a break!

I tell you who does deserve a kicking, though. Bloody Marmee in Little Women. She takes her TWELVE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER Amy out of school and off to be a paid companion to Aunt March, while she swans around doing ... something vague and unpaid involving soldiers.

God, I HATE Marmee! Even worse is that sil is Marmee and even ranges her adoring dds round her whilst wearing a beatific expression. Ugh.

I'm on page 5 of this thread now. You are my people!

Actually may start a new "Gemma" thread. Just finished reading all four to dd. We shed a tear at the end, "Goodbye, Gemma! Goodbye! Goodbye!"

Has anyone read Dodie Smith's autobiography? The earlier volumes about her childhood and young adulthood are good. However, what sticks in my memory is what a waste of space her husband seemed to be, not that she acknowledged it in any way - but I wonder if that fed into her perception of men in her books. Once they were married essentially he seems to have lived off her. He notionally acted as a sort of PA, but the reality is that she had no need of one and had lived independently without one for years. He was a conscientious objector, so they moved to the US to escape conscription, and both were very indignant to find that when the US entered the war he was at risk of being called up there to do non-combatant work. I couldn't help thinking that his problem was that he thought himself above work in any shape or form.

Just coming back to this thread. Off to google Mantlemass, it's ringing all sorts of bells in my head, thank you thank you whoever started that my bank balance does not thank you!

I thought you were going to say you just realised there is a lesbian relationship in it.

I completely missed the two Drs the first time.