Any Noel Streatfeild fans here?

[JFDIYOLO]

I love her books about children on stage, at Madame Fidolia's Academy - have done since I was very young and Mum first handed me Ballet Shoes and The Painted Garden.

💓💓💓💓💓

No - I'll see if I can get them! I enjoyed the 'Thursday' books - my copy of the second one (bought from eBay as an adult) is an American edition with some rather incongruous Americanisms, such as using 'public transportation' rather than the underground/tube - which adds interest.

@RaeHitsEbSire oh yes, Marianne and Abe! I loved those.

I wonder if Marianne and Abe's relationship would be seen as acceptable nowadays? Or Abe being part of 'The Thursday Group' with pupils from his own school?

I found it so romantic as a teenager - I still do! I pictured Abe as looking exactly like Bruno from Fame.

Sorry for hijacking a Noel Streatfeild thread with Jean Ure!

It was me started it !

I did wonder that about Abe and
Marianne? Would people have the ick about it now? I have a feeling it would be viewed differently now.

Abe was very scrupulous about 'how far he would go' with Marianne but I think her age would be seen as more of an issue nowadays.

They might not have bonded by Marianne hustling him around the supermarket, either, as I imagine nowadays Abe would be using assistive technology to do his shopping online.

Yes I think the story wouldn't translate well to the 2020s. I loved how gentlemanly Abe was with Marianne. How he discovered her singing voice and helped build her confidence.

Yes, and the theme of Marianne being possessive over Abe while he, with the benefit of experience, wants to avoid a situation where he becomes dependent on her, is very well thought out.

Mobile phones would render much of the second book's emotional turmoil redundant. I love the ending where she literally falls into his arms!

Yes it's a beautiful ending.

Going back to Noel Streatfield had anyone read Saplings yet? It isn't aimed at children. I would love to read it. I'm going to try eBay.

I read The Painted Garden before I'd ever discovered The Secret Garden - the 'oh I SEE!' revelation when I read it ... 🤗

Must look for The Witcharts.

Other books that are part of my theatre kids DNA are The Swish of the Curtain series by Pamela Brown and the Sadlers Wells books by Lorna Hill, who also wrote other series and they sometimes crossed over with characters from other series. Guy would be seen as ... problematic ... today ...

The Gemma books were relatively recent when I read them - I also had the paperbacks with the photo covers, and I really liked the combination of film star child and ordinary suburban life. It seemed so strange when Gemma remarks the school uniform skirts were too long and was told the girls just rolled the waists to shorten them - I was reading in the midi/maxi 70s and Noel was writing in the mini 60s, an alien concept then. Yet today ... any bunch of schoolgirls will be doing exactly the same thing over half a century on.

These books were my first encounters with Shakespeare, too, as well as the reality and discipline of theatre, skating, circus - she must have researched thoroughly.

Yes, I read her books when I was young in the 70s, and loved them. I don't have the books now, but did manage to find a copy of Ballet Shoes a little while ago so I'm looking forward to reading it again.

The thing I could never get over is her inability to spell field. 😉

@EBearhug When I was in 4th grade (US), my teacher had us write on the board our favorite author. I wrote, "Noel Streatfeild." She said, "Oh, I see a mistake on the board." I was certain I was correct, but, being 9, I did what the teacher said and went up to the board and changed the spelling. I was so upset when I went home and looked at all my Noel StreatfEIld books. I knew I was right.

I remember in year 5 our teacher challenged us to think of a word which didn't follow the I before e rule.

I promptly came up with "Streatfeild" and he agreed but said it didn't really count as it was a name.

I think one of the books I have (maybe "The house in Cornwall" - it has a lot of errors on the cover, including misspelling of "Sorrel" and incorrectly calling the uncle "Quentin" ) does misspell her name as" field".

My favourite Jean Ure is probably Play Nimrod for Him, about the intense friendship between two teenage boys. Very well written. Sad though.

The Whicharts is interesting; it's a brutally realistic adult version of Ballet Shoes.

I found it a bit sordid.

It's interesting to see how the Wicharts was sanitised - the illegitimate sisters becoming foundlings and so on.

She is one of the few of my childhood favourites that my dd liked too. Monica Edwards and Antonia Forest worked as well.

Yes those ones dd2 and ds loved. DD1 had a very different taste.

The all liked Enid Blyton and Geoffrey Trease too, and ds was totally obsessed with Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine series for a while.

I loved Thursdays Child but never read Far to Go because I can't stand when baddies who you think are dealt with in the first of the series bloody return.

Also love the Malcolm Saville Lone Pine series - that's an entire thread right there.

Yes. Still read then now and buy up copies if I find them in second hand bookshops. Huge fan of White Boots in particular. Also Lorna Hill and A Dream of Sadlers Wells. Was madly in love with Sebastian.

Yes yes yes!

Loved the Shoe books. Still have a copy of Ballet Shoes.

Happily reliving my childhood here! Loved Noel Stretfeild, Malcolm Saville, Geoffrey and Henry Trease as well as Rosemary Sutcliffe, Barbara Willard and Cynthia Harnett.