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.

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You've got me wanting to read all the ones I've missed! I don't know if this interests anyone - it says some are hard to get hold of. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Streatfeilds-Christmas-Stories-Virago-Classics-ebook/dp/B07D6RSYHJ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2XY1VN38E44EI&keywords=noel+streatfeild+complete&qid=1696703945&sprefix=noel+streatfeild+complete%2Caps%2C443&sr=8-1

Yes, £3.99 on Kindle.

I love The Fearless Treasure too.

Is the one with Tamsin actually Sussex and Monica Edwards Wrestling series with Tamsin, Rissa, Meryon and Roger?

@MargaretThursday "Is the one with Tamsin actually Sussex and Monica Edwards Wrestling series with Tamsin, Rissa, Meryon and Roger?"
Yes- and there was the Punchbowl Farm series with Andrea,Dion, Lindsay and Peter. Lindsay and Tamsin ended up being friends and there was some coupling up- Dion and Rissa, Lindsay and Roger and Tamsin and Meryon. There is some excellent fanfic......

I wondered if it was Monica Edwards but I had convinced myself the books were set in Cornwall - and my geography was good enough to know the difference between that and Sussex.

I will have to get hold of one of her books to see if it rings any bells.

How exciting! I’ve just bought it. I looked years ago and it cost a fortune.
It’s even more exciting than reading ‘Pioneer Girl’ after all the ‘Little House’ books.

Hello! Sorrel reporting for duty. Massive NS fan (obviously) and have all her children's books, biographies and quite a few of her adult ones.

I have a pdf of the short story which is a sequel to Ballet Shoes. Happy to email it to anyone.

So many NS books I'd never heard of and must look out for!

The sleaziness of the theatre is coming through already. The ‘three servant poverty’ that always made my mother roll her eyes isn’t really there.

Thanks to the suggestions here I hit Abe Books and I've now read The Growing Summer, The Painted Garden (lovely to see Posy and Pauline and crew), Ballet Shoes For Anna and White Boots.

Thanks to everyone for such a lovely week of reading!

My type of thread - Noel Streatfeild is one of my favourite authors and I am gradually building up a collection of first editions - have read most of her books...

absolute favourite is Apple Bough as I did quite a bit of music as a child, but also enjoy:

• Thursday's child
• Gemma series
• The Growing Summer
• Tennis Shoes
• White Boots
• Caldicott Place
• Ballet shoes (and the other linked ones)

If anyone is interested - I am gradually building a website covering her as an author and her books - with links to characters / mapping points in the books / links to articles / videos / etc. (noelstreatfeild.storymole.com) - one of a series on different authors... labour of love and non-commercial (amazon affiliate is not live!) do feel free to give feedback!

The link isn't working @bookEnthusiast ?

Apologies - it is the way Mumsnet builds links automatically - it has included the last ')'

https://noelstreatfeild.storymole.com

should now work!

I loved Apple Bough, but my all time favourite of hers was Party Frock.
I do wish they hadn't renamed them.

Just browsing your website now. I had no idea she had written so many books.

Thank you - I think they renamed them for US marketing reasons - thinking it would look good to have them as some form of series (even though the vast majority have no reference to any other!) - a bit crass and one of the reasons I collect first editions - you get them as the author intended!

I dislike the renaming too. I think "White boots" makes far more sense than "Skating shoes" and still looks like they go together, for example, and "Theatre shoes" makes no sense at all!

Although my all time dislike of changed titles was when I finished reading "Lavender Leigh at the Chalet School" and I commented to someone that the title would have been far better as "Lavender laughs in the Chalet School". (Lavender is a new girl at the Chalet School, whose aunt is famous for writing a series of travel books called "Lavender Laughs series" so the books are titled things like "Lavender Laughs in Germany" etc)
Person looked at me very strangely and asked didn't I know that was the original title. Why anyone would think the new title was better than the old-and it's not like it's really dated either-is beyond me!

My copy of Lavender is regrettably the 'Leigh' edition but I knew what it should be called from that list of alterations and abridgements that used to be online.

No idea why it was changed when the 'Laughs' books were such a key part of her character.

I dislike the renaming too. I think "White boots" makes far more sense than "Skating shoes" and still looks like they go together, for example, and "Theatre shoes" makes no sense at all!

There were matching party shoes or slippers in Party Frock but changing Apple Bough to Travelling Shoes is nonsense. The only shoes which travel are the ones on people's feet.

There is a series on sky arts called Wonderlands which features Noel Streatfield along with other classic authors. It’s worth a watch if anyone has sky.

The shoes thing is utterly ridiculous, IMO. The Curtain Up renaming particularly bothers me (just googled ‘theatre shoes’ and a lot of crocs appeared) and ‘skating shoes’ doesn’t even make sense as they are (white) boots.

I’ve never even read the Chalet School books (I know) and that has really bothered me!

@DorritLittle - I couldn’t agree more. It’s so lazy.

Oh, you really should, Dorrit. You can get the more common Armada editions quite cheaply - and see if you get hooked enough to buy the expensive unabridged/rarer ones!

Sky Arts is on Freeview - you don't need to have a subscription. Worth keeping an eye on - they've had some very good book programmes.

Some of them are available free here, on fadedpage.com https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Brent-Dyer,%20Elinor%20Mary You can read them for free, or download them.