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?

Oh the swirling, that brings me back. I never quite knew what it meant.

Does anyone know if it is possible to buy the other books that go with A Vicarage Family? (Away from the Vicarage and Beyond The Vicarage). I would love to read them, but cannot find them anywhere. In saying that, it's a while since I searched but this thread reminded me again. I did find one ages ago but it was very expensive.

You're right Rainy

I've just flicked through - I was thinking of the film version which had a little black girl. In the book her friend was just another orphan - but she still ended up as the heroine's dogsbody.

My daughter asked me years ago when I read it to her "But why doesn't he adopt her, too? They could be sisters."

Not in that world, my darling . . . Not in that world.

There's quite a lot of copies of them on Abebooks, but run at £15-£20. The Angela Bull biography is worth a read too.

Orlanda, that's really interesting - she doesn't seem to be well known these days, but the books are well written. Nana got sent a signed copy of all the books for her children, most of which I got

I started reading this thread a couple of hours ago - clicked on the link to a youtube film of Ballet Shoes, then found this one

which is a hundred times better, Emilia Fox as Garnie, Victoria Wood as Nana, Richard Griffiths as Gum. What a lovely waste of time, thanks Mumsnet. (actually, since it had Spanish subtitles and I'm trying to learn Spanish, I could even justify it!)

I also wanted to add that I recently reread White Boots and was very disappointed. Ballet Shoes was always my favourite.

You are right, ladies - there was no black character in the book - my mind's eye was on the film version. However as my daughter said when I read the book to her a quarter of a century ago, "Why didn't he adopt them both. They could be sisters" (Poor little soul - she only had a brother; a sister was a dream beyond delight . . . )

Can I apologise, people? Something weird is happening with my posts. They are duplicating, and in the case of the last one, disappeared with no sign, so I re-posted (obviously my opinion is so important that you all need the benefit . . . ) and suddenly there were TWO similar posts.

Mea culpa.

Thanks CMOT.

Becky is black in the film I guess because they've moved the action to America so the black maid character 'works' better.

There is the Indian servant of the rich gent, though. And yes, I always thought it was crap how Becky's 'happy ending' was to come and be a maid in slightly nicer conditions!

Oh, I loved the Mantlemass books, especially the one about the woman blacksmith. The Iron Rose? The Iron Lily?

Ballet Shoes is my absolute all time favourite book. I've read 3 copies sof many times they fell apart. I don't currently own a copy because I can't find one I love. Actually I lie. I do have one but it's not 'right'
My bf recently traced down a dvd of the original 1975 movie for me. I think he paid more for it than I've ever paid for a dvd I always wanted to be Posy but realised once I got older that she was a spoiled Brat and Petrova is actually the only nice sister.

I love all NS books. I have my mums copies of the Gemma and Sisters books and always wanted to be Lydie (was that the dancing one?) I even refused to ride my bike for a while after she was told it was bad for dancers!

Bf has 'vetoed ' posy as a possible name for our hypothetical daughter. Maybe I can persuade him Lydie is nice.

Actually surely her name was Lydia?

Need to come back to this later to watch the film links - that's my Friday night sorted My top NS novels in order Ballet Shoes, The Painted Garden, White Boots.
What an interesting thread - most of my favourite novels & indeed what I mainly read are set between war & feature good dose of gentile poverty. I love that post (with we could "like " on here as I can never remember which poster) about the servants being equivalent to today's domestic appliances- i.e. We still take advantage of cheap labour and not owning a washing machine is pretty unusual for the middle classes today, even if we're "struggling "

" good dose of gentile poverty. "

sorry I am not normally a pedant but you do mean "genteel" here.

"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."

I actually had this conversation with dd a while ago. She pointed out (and I checked and it is indeed true) that Sylvia didn't know that the house was in her name - she only discovered it when things got really desperate and she went to a lawyer to try to figure out what she could do.

In this situation - having posession of a very large house in a desirable area that you can't sell - taking in boarders is actually quite a sensible way of making a living, and the cook / maid can be seen as necessary employees for the business (the lodgers are, I'm pretty certain, provided with food).

I think Sylvia's main failing was that she didn't make it pay - the impression I get (admittedly garnered from other novels) is that at that point in history plenty of women made an acceptable if scanty living from running a boarding house. But they were probably less genteel and less nice to their lodgers!

Broomstick - its the Iron Lily

I've been searching and all I've found are The Painted Garden and White Boots. I know my daughter has Apple Bough in her room which I never read. No Ballet Shoes or Gemma books unfortunately. Our books are still in a mess after moving and are stacked horizontally and two deep on the bookshelves so there could be more treasures. I found masses of my beloved Lorna Hill though. Anyone else like those? I seem to have 3 copies of No Castanets at the Wells for some reason. I really want to find Ballet Shoes now. I remember what seemed like pages and pages of The Bluebird play in Ballet Shoes - then later saw Patsy Kensit and Elizabeth Taylor in the film of it. Anyone else remember the black plastic dresses with collars which Gemma & Sisters wore?

Housewife yes! For a tap dance iirc?
I own a very old very battered copy of The Bluebird purely because it was in Ballet Shoes. I may have been slightly obsessed!

I also know random half bits of speeches from A midsummer Nights Dream thanks to the 1975 TV version.

"Thou speakst aright. I am that merry wanderer of the night I jest to Oberon and..."

Loved the Sadlers Wells books, although the later ones are ridiculous. I love the descriptions of hard work, sore feet, not enough money and the combination of deadly rivalry and incredible support and friendship among the dancers.

Broomstick
The later Sadlers Wells books were terrible. Foir me the first 4 are the best, the first two especially. I love it when Sebastian & Veronica fall in love. K M Peyton's Flambards books are also lifelong favourites too.

To the poster who complained about spoilers a few pages back - if you love the book (so have presumably read it) how can anything said here be a spoiler?!

Going back to what a brat Posy was, it seems that's often the case with talented dancers in NS - it's a long time since I've read Ballet Shoes for Anna but I think she was pretty me me me and Lydia in the Gemma books is awful!

Brilliant books though, lots of similar stuff running through them but I love how each one is individual and really sums up the time and place it's set in e.g. Ballet Shoes 1920s London, Gemma etc 50s/60s suburbia, The Painted Garden 40s (?) LA.

There was another good one that I remember as being a bit different - not about stagey/talented kids. Was it called The Growing Summer? Where they're sent to stay with their odd Aunt Dymphna or something? Off to Google... :)

Orlanda I love The Making of a Marchioness :) currently reading it. I loved Gemma books too and White Boots (am I imagining it or did they change the name to Skating Shoes?). I also liked a lot of NS's adult romances, written as Susan Scarlett. They have the same feel as her children's books, especially Poppies for England, Murder while you Work and Clothes Pegs. I haven't liked her other adult books apart from the Whicharts, they are too dark for me.

Jeeez Thanks Brat I definitely did mean genteel !

Oh I liked the Growing Summer too, great descriptions of food if always made me starving.

*it

Ooh Ellicam, never met anyone else who has, though the Mitfords went on about rubies the size of a trouser button.. have you read The Shuttle?

Yes, it is the growing summer, and I think a v interesting one. Lots if growing up occurring.

I too like the Flambards stories. But golly, the level if brutality thatvwas the norm..

Yep, The Growing Summer.

I too love the Wells books but Ballet Shoes will always be my absolute favourite. I recently attended a skills to foster course and had to take along a precious object. I took my 1950s copy of Ballet Shoes!