A vicarage family (by Noel Streatfeild)

(Amazon UK link)

My favourite books by Noel Streatfeild are her novels for children. I’m slowly re-reading my way through them, as I do from time to time. But this month I decided to read the first of her fictionalised biographies, ‘A Vicarage Family’. I last read this in 2014, so it felt like more than time to peruse it again.

I’m not entirely sure why the author decided to tell her story in the third person, featuring a family with different names. Perhaps she was worried about the legal implications of using real names, although I would have thought that most of the people would recognise themselves. Whatever the reason, it works quite well, beginning almost like one of her novels.

Streatfeild’s family have the surname Strangeway in this book. Father is a hard-working vicar, whose ecclesiastic practice is decidedly on the high church scale, although he practises a life of ascetism, viewing anything comfortable or attractive with suspicion. He is caring, generous and generally likeable, although he can be quite strict with his family. His wife is loyal and also works hard, although she would sometimes like a few more pretty things, and to be warm and comfortable.

Isabel is the oldest of the children; she’s thirteen at the start of the book. She’s quite frail, as she suffers from asthmatic attacks. She’s mostly good-tempered and something of a peacemaker. She’s also quite a talented artist. Victoria is the second; she is the one whom Noel Streatfeild identifies with, and thus reflects the author’s own childhood. Victoria is twelve at the start of the book. When we first meet her she’s grumpy and bored, which is typical. She’s the rebel of the family, and not blessed with diplomacy. 

Louise is the youngest of the daughters; she’s ten but treated as if she were younger. Louise is charming and pretty and knows how to get her own way. She’s quite close to Dick, the youngest, who is eight. And, as was apparently the expectation of the time, even in the poorest of the middle class families boys were sent to boarding school at that age. So Dick, who is very much a home-lover, is sent away to school which he loathes. 

There’s also John, a cousin who is a year or so older than Isabel, and whose parents work in India. He also goes to boarding school but he’s very academic and mostly likes it. He spends his holidays with the Strangeways, and is good friends in particular with Victoria. Each year the family takes a two-week break, sometimes in out-of-the-way places that bore them, but sometimes they have a wonderful time. We hear about two or three of these, as well as visits to grandparents, and Christmas entertainment that the children put together. 

The book takes place over the course of about four years, ending in 1914 shortly after the declaration of war. It charts Victoria’s gradual acceptance of the importance of working rather than slacking off. It also shows her talent in organising - particularly village children - and the beginnings of her ability to write. She often clashes with her mother, who seems to resent her for being mostly healthy. But as she grows up, she becomes the recipient of some confidences and begins to relate better to her mother.

There are a lot of anecdotes in the book, some of them more interesting than others. Victoria sometimes struggles with the strong church foundation of her life, but she has a childlike faith in God at the same time. She asks questions that people don’t necessarily want to answer, and she takes instant likes or dislikes to people, often somewhat irrationally, or based on a single incident. 

I liked this book very much the last time I read it. This time, while still appreciating the story, I felt that there are perhaps too many author asides - extra commentary about how something wasn’t understood until years later, perhaps; or saying what happened to various people long after the incidents described. From a biographical point of view these things are relevant, but as a book to read as a story, complete in itself, they felt unnecessary. 

Still, it’s excellent from the social history point of view, and gives some background into the way that Noel Streatfeild often had rather grumpy or apparently untalented middle children in her books. I would recommend it to anyone - teen or adult - interested in this period of history, with one warning: there’s a shock in the final chapter which leads to Victoria’s rapid maturity, but which is not the kind of thing that would usually happen at all in a children’s book, and certainly not right at the end. 

There are two sequels to this book. I have the final part, but don’t plan to reread that any time soon as I didn’t find it all that interesting. The middle part is very hard to find, although if I ever come across it inexpensively in a charity shop, I would certainly buy it. 'A vicarage family', however, has been reprinted and is available new in paperback, or in Kindle form. 

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