More on Noel Streatfeild

It was Ballet Shoes for Anna I went for, but I didn’t get through it all before I left so I brought it in my hand luggage and finished it on the ferry while working on Lisa’s blanket.

In looking through some of what’s been written about Noel Streatfeild online [still can't get used to the second syllable vowel order of her surname] I noted they quote J.K. Rowling as saying NS was a favourite author, and with that in mind I could certainly see inspiration for Vernon Dursley in Cecil Docksay. There is the unhidden pique at having the offspring of a censured sibling foisted upon his pristine suburban idyll, compounded by the stated disapproval of that parental gift (magic and art respectively) and the forbidding of the child’s birthright skill (in Harry magic, in Anna ballet).

I could go on, but I think you probably either get the point or don’t much care, so I’ll leave it at that.

Beginning with reading

I know, I know, I said the new civil year was the arbitrary date, but who wants to wait?

After seeing the BBC‘s new version of Ballet Shoes the other day, and being at home with all my childhood books, I obviously had to reread lots of Noel Streatfeild. So that was:

• Ballet Shoes
• Curtain Up
• The Circus is Coming

and there are still a few hours, so I might possibly go for White Boots as well. Or possibly Ballet Shoes for Anna. Probably neither of the Gemma books I own. And then when I get back to London perhaps I should actually read the autobiographical one I bought a few months back. (A Vicarage Family.) I’d actually like to read some of the ones I missed over the years, too, although I think I’ll get them through the public library rather than paying for them.