What was your favourite Noel Streatfeild book?

[Deminism]

Have been reading some to DD and we’re loving them. I realise however she wrote loads and I had only read a few as a kid. Ballet shoes, White Boots and Thursday’s Child.

Of the others which did you love the most?

I'm fairly sure the book says Nana had refused to accept wages for several years and something like 'time enough to pay me when the professor gets back'.

@ClariceQuiff

I'm fairly sure the book says Nana had refused to accept wages for several years and something like 'time enough to pay me when the professor gets back'.

I think so too!

@rogerponny, that's Ballet Shoes for Anna, and not nearly as good as Ballet Shoes! (Although the earthquake at the beginning is vividly described).

In the Gemma books, one of the songs Robin swirls is Peri, Meri, Dixie- a song I didn't know, but thanks to another thread, have just discovered there is a version from a couple of years ago by The Wiggles! So I am imagining Robin's swirling as similar to that .

[quote Tanaqui]@rogerponny, that's Ballet Shoes for Anna, and not nearly as good as Ballet Shoes! (Although the earthquake at the beginning is vividly described).

In the Gemma books, one of the songs Robin swirls is Peri, Meri, Dixie- a song I didn't know, but thanks to another thread, have just discovered there is a version from a couple of years ago by The Wiggles! So I am imagining Robin's swirling as similar to that .[/quote]
Now imagining an embarrassed Pauline, Petrova and Posy being the Red, Blue and Yellow Wiggles for the cash to pay Nana. Wearily chanting ‘Toot-toot, chugga-chugga, Big Red Car!’ 😀

@TheMerrickBoy

it's a very specific form of privilege isn't it, to be so poor you can't pay your staff, but you do have a house that's big enough to take in three sets of lodgers each of whom can contribute meaningfully to the careers or education of your three children. What are the chances!

I guess being "poor" is subjective. Compared to their life 'before' GUM disappeared Garnie felt poor.

A bit like a woman I know who claims she's "poor" because she can't afford to take her dc abroad, but goes to Butlins 3-4 times per year. I can't even afford a camping trip! But compared to her childhood she feels poor. Maybe I should take in boarders. Not that I have any spare rooms

definitely - they're doing genteel poverty!

@drspouse

The BBC drama of Ballet Shoes was excellent. I wonder if you can still watch it?

The BBC Drama version of Ballet Shoes with Emma Watson is available on Amazon Prime Video now

Oh, I would take in boarders… if only I had the staff…

Poor old Peaseblossom; I imagine her as a Joyce Grenfell-alike in a gym slip mooning after the vague, weak, entitled mother. How they had the brass neck to gobble up her money is one of fiction’s great what the? moments.

It’s interesting how many of the fathers are weak and ineffective.
I wonder if that was deliberate or if Noel was writing from her own experience? My memories of The Vicarage Family is that the mother was a forceful personality.

I think in general she didn't have great experiences with men, and her father was weak for sure (or at least as reported by her).
The father in White Boots is a terrible businessman, and rather than getting a proper job persists in running a business which doesn't support his family which is pretty typical of her representation of fathers

My dd gets completely outraged at the unfairness of Apple Bough - the fact that the parents are so oblivious to their other children’s needs.

@TheMerrickBoy

it's a very specific form of privilege isn't it, to be so poor you can't pay your staff, but you do have a house that's big enough to take in three sets of lodgers each of whom can contribute meaningfully to the careers or education of your three children. What are the chances!

You get that today too with asset rich, cash poor people, especially in the SE where housing has gone up so much.

And it was only towards the end of the book that Garnie found that the house was in her name so could sell it, and once she'd found that she did. So you can't really blame anyone except GUM for not telling her, and for going away for so long.

I suspect the dad getting given a car in the Gemma books is simply a way of explaining how they got a car when they couldn't really afford it.... hope the orchestra paid the running cost too.

They also take a house for the summer with catering - I can’t remember if someone paid for that too.

Actually irl I know a few people like that - consummate freeloaders who always know someone with a holiday home, or London flat, or a Wimbledon debenture…. And they never seem to have to reciprocate.

Reminds me of the start of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, where we're told the family are really poor, as the 2 children come home from boarding school for the summer holidays.

It's not that different now. Mumsnet is full of people 'making sacrifices' to send their children to private school, when most people would have to sacrifice actual food/rent to afford the fees. It's about what a family considers essential or most important and how easily they can afford it.

The Growing Summer and Ballet Shoes for Anna.

It's about class and entitlement and who people surround themselves with. A recent customer told me that her family was not wealthy, despite both parents being bankers and sending their son to an international boarding school.

@DottyHarmer

They also take a house for the summer with catering - I can’t remember if someone paid for that too.

Actually irl I know a few people like that - consummate freeloaders who always know someone with a holiday home, or London flat, or a Wimbledon debenture…. And they never seem to have to reciprocate.

Didn't Pauline withdraw all her earnings from the post office to pay for it? There was a conference involving the doctors and Theo; Theo opined that Pauline was likely to be successful enough as an actor not to have to rely on her savings in the future.

Note to self: strongly encourage dcs to get on out and earn enough to support me in the style to which I wish to become accustomed! (Eyes ds sprawling on sofa reading…. No money in reading….)

Thinking about this, I always bristle somewhat when reading about Sylvia Plath’s financial struggles. Ludicrous compared with the average joe! I suppose one always compares oneself with one’s peers (or hoped to be peers) and if one’s lifestyle falls short of theirs then you may feel dissatisfied. But it is still rather galling to read the woe is me stuff when they are really quite well off. (I would say many Plath biographers are a little generous when repeating her biographical entries and display a distinct lack of critical analysis of her declared pecuniary difficulties.)

Sorry, that was completely off topic

I loved Ballet shoes so much that I wanted to call my DD Posy. It was vetoed but I was able to take her to dance classes , somewhat reluctantly from her point of view although she does have beautiful posture !

The Gemma series of books .
Declared at 8 years old I would call my daughter Gemma and I did !

Isn't Gemma the one where the girls wear black plastic dresses to perform their number? I had no idea about Mary Quant and imagined that they were wearing bin bags!

@KingscoteStaff

Isn't Gemma the one where the girls wear black plastic dresses to perform their number? I had no idea about Mary Quant and imagined that they were wearing bin bags!

Yes! That's pretty much my only memory of the Gemma books as well - I remember it as being bin bags as well!

Yes Pauline pays for the holiday for them all to recover from whatever retro disease they have ?scarlet fever? Mumps? out of her savings. It's a sign that she's growing up and making her own choices that she sees the state of the family and takes drastic action.