Ballet Shoes (by Noel Streatfeild)

(Amazon UK link)

I have always loved Noel Streatfeild’s books and have collected most of her children’s novels over the years. Her best-known story is probably ‘Ballet Shoes’, now considered a classic, and one which I re-read regularly. I thought I might start reading it aloud to my five-year-old granddaughter but she found it a bit long-winded so, having abandoned reading aloud after a couple of chapters, I decided to read the rest of it to myself. I last read it only four-and-a-half years ago, but, as ever, had forgotten a lot of the details.

The main story, of course, is well-known. Great-Uncle Matthew, affectionately known as GUM, is a somewhat absent-minded collector of fossils. His orphaned niece Sylvia looks after him, with her former nurse known as Nana and a cook and housemaid - rather an extensive household, it seems to me from this 21st perspective, but quite a small staff for the era (1930s) in which it was written.

Gum finds three babies in rather different circumstances over about five years, and brings them to Sylvia, convinced she will be thrilled. Adoption was evidently a simpler process then than it is today, and the three girls, Pauline, Petrova and Posy, are brought up by the loving but old-fashioned Nana, and for the first ten years or so of their lives, they are comfortably off. Gum has gone on a long voyage of exploration, but put plenty of money in the bank. Sylvia is a bit dubious about when he might return so she puts some of the money aside… but eventually it runs out.

The two older girls have been going to a private school, but Sylvia can no longer afford to send them there, and decides to take in some paying guests. This works out well, and at the suggestion of one of the boarders, they are offered free places at a Stage and Dancing Academy. Pauline discovers a talent for acting, and Posy is an exceptionally good dancer, as well as a clever mimic. But Petrova wants to be some kind of engineer, and likes cars and aeroplanes much better than she likes dancing or acting.

The story is about their day-to-day lives, painting a wonderful picture of a loving - if unusual - family in the era. While the circumstances and finances mentioned are clearly well out-of-date, the personalities and conversations seem entirely relevant to today, albeit tinged with an innocence that seems to be gone from modern life. The children’s squabbles are minimal, but realistic, and Sylvia’s concerns about money all too relevant to families today.

I’d entirely forgotten some of the scenes, and many of the details, but loved re-visiting some of my favourite fictional characters, entering their world again for a few hours. I loved the book just as much as I did when I first read it over fifty years ago, and would recommend it highly to children - particularly girls - over the age of about eight or nine, and to adults who read these books in their own childhood.

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