Noel Streatfeild

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Fiona1986
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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Fiona1986 »

For that I need more rooms in my house!
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.


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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I know the feeling!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Courtenay »

Maybe an extra house (or two)? :D
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I recently re-read The Children of Primrose Lane (1941) and found the characters well-drawn and the plot quite gripping, though I was a little frustrated when the story ended without the reader being given more detail about one of the adult characters.

My copy is a 1959 Collins printing and it has a note from Noel Streatfeild at the front in which she says that the book "is about war-time Britain" but "you were not born, so you may find some things odd, and others puzzling." She goes on to explain a little about gas-masks, Anderson shelters, the black-out, etc. and finishes by saying, "They were hard, dreadful times, but they were full of adventure, and there were things about them that are good to remember."

Wouldn't it be great if similar notes could be added to Enid Blyton books where relevant?

It's interesting when Noel Streatfeild gets a touch political, e.g. when she writes of the condemned houses in Primrose Lane:

"The four houses in the Lane might be condemned by the Council, but to ordinary people, who were not the Council, they looked nice little houses, full of character."

I recall that she also airs her views on comprehensive schools in her "Gemma" series.

The proposed demolition of the houses has been halted because of the war, which suits the residents as they're very close to each other - "Because they lived in a lane that had only three inhabited houses in it, the Smiths and the Browns and the Evanses were more like one family than three."

Anyone reading the book after 1945 would know the war was to continue for several more years and that the six children of Primrose Lane (aged 9-14) would be able to carry on living there for quite some time before the Council talked once more about demolition (they don't appear to live in an area from which children were evacuated either). I can't help thinking of various studies of communities which were broken up when slums were cleared from the 1930s onwards, leading the inhabitants to be rehoused elsewhere. Many people felt isolated and unhappy in their new surroundings despite the more modern living conditions because they missed the other families they'd known all their lives - in fact, some of them had ties going back generations. So it's understandable that "the Smiths and the Browns and the Evanses were very glad" to be allowed to stay, but it seems unkind - and contrary to the notion of neighbourly spirit - that they "often laughed to think of the Richardses, who had lived in Number Four, and had moved out because of the houses being condemned."

Funnily enough, although the book is set firmly in wartime, food-rationing doesn't seem to cause much of a problem. The children don't have any trouble buying sausages, four tins of lobster, cream buns, ice-cream and fruit for a party. Incidentally, there's a wonderful passage at the party in which each of the mothers looks at her own offspring with pride, comparing them favourably with the children from the other families!

Noel Streatfeild's foreword indicates that the book was written in 1940, which might explain why the children quote Oliver Cromwell rather than Winston Churchill to boost their morale. Sally remembers a quotation she was taught in school: "Oliver Cromwell once said when things were bad: 'Well, your danger is as you have seen. And truly I am sorry it is so great. But I would have it cause no despondency, as truly I think it will not, for we are Englishmen.'"

Critics come down hard on Enid Blyton for using certain words, but they were commonplace at the time. Noel Streatfeild has Sally say (when Marge is using soot to make Dave's face dirty): "That's heaps; we don't want him to look like a nigger off a beach." Later, Millie refers to gipsies as "Gippos" - whereas I think Enid Blyton's characters tend to say "gipsies" (or "gypsies") in full.

All in all, a very enjoyable wartime adventure with a likeable assortment of characters.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Pauline »

As a child I discovered Noel Streatfeild shortly after Malory Towers and St Clare's. I absolutely love her books - my favourite being the much reprinted and re-dramatised Ballet Shoes, although I'm always disappointed if it is not absolutely faithful to the book. In the 2007 film, starring Emma Watson as Pauline, all the girls were much too old at the start of the book, looking as though they were around fourteen; in the book they were much younger when they started the Academy.

I really appreciate the fact that the leading character in Ballet Shoes is a Pauline, as the only Pauline in EB, as far as I am aware, was the plain and snobbish Pauline Bingham-Jones at St Clare's; a very unattractive character.

I also love White Boots (now Skating Shoes) and The Circus is Coming.
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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Delighted to meet another Noel Streatfeild fan! I love all those books too, Pauline, and I've just finished re-reading my absolute favourite - Apple Bough. It's a heartwarming tale of family life and home (or longing for a home) which keeps me hooked from beginning to end and never fails to move me, however many times I read it. Life for the Forum family revolves around young Sebastian, who is a marvel on the violin and plays in concerts all over the world. There comes a point when his three siblings realise that they will have to do something about the situation if they wish to pursue their own dreams. As Wolfgang says, "'We aren't just Sebastian's brother and sisters. We're people.' He thumped his chest. 'I'm Wolf. A whole boy.'" My favourite character is Myra, who doesn't have a talent for the arts but learns that she has "a talent for wisdom and being a good sister."
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Pauline »

Yes, I read this years ago, but need to read it again, I think. A reminder that we all have talents and who is to say which are of most value? Difficult to compare. I liked Myra too.
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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

The other day I picked up a copy of Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Annual (1959) for £3.99 from an Oxfam Bookshop in Romsey. It's an attractive book with a dustwrapper and endpapers illustrated by Esmé Eve and it contains photos of ballet dancers as well as drawings by various artists - Peggy Fortnum, Lilian Buchanan, Shirley Hughes and others. There are thirteen stories/articles altogether - six by Noel Streatfeild and the rest by a range of writers including Pamela Brown and Elizabeth Enright.

I haven't yet read any of the stories or articles but I have had a look through the annual, enjoying Noel Streatfeild's warm introduction and having a grin at a caption beneath a photo of Beryl Grey: "Here you can see that Beryl Grey is not only a lovely dancer, but has a beautiful face. Notice her fine forehead, her wide-apart eyes and her generous mouth."

There's a competition on the back cover, the first prize being "A visit to the theatre with Noel Streatfeild." Wow - as a child I'd have been overjoyed to go to the theatre with one of my favourite authors! The consolation prizes for runners-up are books autographed by Noel Streatfeild. The competition is open to children aged 14 or under and entrants have to "State in not more than 100 words why you liked this year's Noel Streatfeild Ballet Annual." Just the sort of competition I'd have loved to enter!

I'm delighted to add a gem like this to my collection!
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Re: Noel Streatfeild

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I missed out on Noel Streatfeild's The Fearless Treasure (published in 1953) when I was growing up but, after reading Debbie's praise for it on the forums, I decided to give it a read and found it absorbing and unusual.

Six children from different backgrounds (William, Grace, Robert, Elizabeth, John and Selina) are sent for by the heads of their respective schools and told that they've been chosen to go on a journey with a mysterious Mr Fosse. The 'journey' isn't of the ordinary kind as it takes them through different periods of English history, looking at how one development led to another, and there's a twist which adds an extra layer of interest and feeds into the thought-provoking ending.

In each period we meet characters who discuss their way of life. Some of them deliver unnaturally long monologues in their attempt to explain how their society is structured, but there is also some delightful conversation covering topics such as labour, leisure, slavery, serfdom, freedom, government, housing, marriage, inventions, disease and travel. To give just one example, here's an extract from a visit to the Corpus Christi fair and play-pageants in Norwich in 1495. The children and Mr Fosse are talking to Joan, "an enormously fat woman with a big broad smile", who runs a stall selling boiled eels with the help of her two small sons.
"I expect you have to be careful about drains and things, since the Black Death, don't you?" William asked.

Joan did not seem to have heard of the Black Death. Did William mean that sweating sickness that they had nine years ago? Terrible that had been, herself she did not believe it had come from dirt, as they said, but fussy! Did Mr Fosse know that it was a punishable offence to throw your slops out of a window? Things were coming to a pretty pass if you couldn't throw your slops where you liked, and if he would believe it the town was paying for carts to pick up the rubbish, and tip it outside. There was a gentleman she had sold eels to that morning who had told her that in London they had special boats for taking dung and that out of the city. A lot of nonsense the whole thing. One comfort, those who worked for the mayor could not have eyes everywhere, so for her part, unless someone was looking, everything went into the street or the ditch as it always had.
Selina remarks to Mr Fosse that people have taken a long time to cotton on to the idea that there's a link between disease and lack of hygiene.
Mr Fosse looked doubtful.

"In our own time it is not the first street accident that focuses public attention on badly-lit streets, dangerous crossings, or whatever it is, but several accidents on the same spot and then, and only then, is something done. It is the same with the plague. It is not the history of the Black Death but the small continuous outbreaks and the sweating sickness which has made those in authority think, and make rules, and then they are hindered by ignorant people like Joan."

Selina stuck to her point.

"They ought to make laws. Then people like Joan have to keep them. After all, it's for everybody's good."

Mr Fosse looked at the others.

"What do you say? Take the same sort of thing in our own day. Ought everybody to be ordered to be vaccinated to keep the country free from smallpox? Should all babies by law be inoculated against diphtheria?"

"Isn't it odd," said Elizabeth, "when it's them, you think: stupid them, they ought to be made to... and when it's us, you think: interfering so-and-so's?"
Entertaining stuff - and also most informative and thought-provoking, bringing history to life for the young reader.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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