The painted garden (by Noel Streatfeild)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m so enjoying re-reading my books by Noel Streatfeild. She wrote originally for children, primarily girls. I loved her books when I was around eight or nine, and again as a teenager, and have continued to read them regularly as an adult. Her characterisation is excellent, and the writing well-paced with a little humour and some poignancy.

I last read ‘The painted garden’ in 2016. I had recalled the overall storyline: a family with three children goes to the United States, where the middle one is selected to play the part of ‘Mary’ in a film production of ‘The Secret Garden’. This despite the fact that the girl has never done any acting in her life. 

But I had forgotten all the detail that goes along with Streatfeild’s stories. This one has the added bonus of some line drawings by Shirley Hughes. Not a huge number, but I very much liked them, and felt that they illustrated perfectly the situations or people concerned. 

The book opens with the Winter family sitting around a table, in early September, doing homework.  Rachel is twelve, and the dancer of the family. Unlike some of Streatfeild’s pushy, self-centered ballet prodigies, Rachel is quiet and responsible. She is hoping to get some work on stage or in a film, now she’s twelve and can have a licence. This will help the family finances, since their father is deep in depression, and unable to work. 

Jane is the middle child of the family, and is ten years old. She’s not pretty like her sister, and has no interest in dancing. She’s quite intelligent, and finds academic work easy. The main love of her life is the family dog, whose name is Chewing Gum. And Jane is prone to fits of bad temper and unpleasantness. Tim is the youngest, eight years old and mostly very placid. He’s an excellent piano player, and also likes jokes and tricks. 

A doctor visits their father, and he is told that he should not spend the next six months in the UK. The children’s mother is longing for him to be better, and persuades him to write to his sister Cora who married an American many years earlier, and who lives in California. She has a large house and has often suggested the family make a visit. Not that they can afford to do so, but he writes anyway. And receives a letter inviting the whole family to stay. And, in one of Streatfeild’s gentle coincidences, their housekeeper/friend/factotum known as ‘Peaseblossom’ inherits some unexpected money that means they are able to go after all.

The book progresses at just the right pace for my tastes, skipping over the frantic packing, while pausing to allow Jane to be persuaded to leave the dog with a trusted friend. We then see them on the train, and for six days on a liner, taking them to New York. There they are met by a friend of Aunt Cora’s, and eventually put on more trains to cross the country to California. 

Of course there’s so much more than this basic outline. There are squabbles amongst the children, observations about what they’re seeing, and the start of some culture shock. The parents explain to the children - to their surprise - that they are foreigners, and must not be rude about their experiences. The book was published as long ago as 1949, which surprised me. Of course there are no computers or mobile phones, and it’s assumed the family will travel across the Atlantic by boat rather than by plane. But everything else seems surprisingly up-to-date. 

A bonus in this book for those who were fans of the book ‘Ballet shoes’ is that Posy Fossil and her sister Pauline appear; Pauline just in passing, but Posy as an important character in Rachel’s adjustment to American life. Posy’s character is still much like it was in ‘Ballet Shoes’ although she’s now an adult, and I appreciated seeing her - and reading about her sisters - now in a ballet company as an up-and-coming star.

I also liked the insights into the making of films, which probably hasn’t changed all that much in sixty-five years, although of course the technology is vastly different. Jane is pleased to be chosen for something, at last; she gets quite fed up with people seeing her as the ‘difficult’ one. Not that she makes much effort to be polite or pleasant, at least not until someone points out that she’s similar to another of the actors whom she heartily dislikes.

One of the things I like best about Streatfeild’s novels is the way her families interact, in ways that seem to me entirely believable. None of them is perfect; even Rachel, while clearly highly talented, is not in Posy’s league. And Rachel can feel upset or jealous, even if she isn’t as unpleasant about it as Jane can be. The parents are mostly aware of the children’s needs, and are good listeners; but they also have their own concerns. 

There are a few caricatures - Aunt Cora is whiny and very self-centered, even though she has invited them all to stay, and her main interest is in hosting parties (for which her cook Bella provides all the food). And there’s a very stereotyped delightful Italian-American couple whom Tim befriends. But having minor characters rather exaggerated isn’t a problem, and makes them all the more memorable. 

Streatfeild’s books sometimes end quite abruptly, but this one closes more gradually, as the children’s time in California comes to a close. They have made a lot of friends and had plenty of new experiences, and we see them saying goodbye, exchanging presents, and finally getting on the train to go back to the UK. Their father has become his old cheerful self again, and started writing; all the children have things to look forward to when they’re back home. 

I’m glad this book was republished, even though it was given the title ‘Movie shoes’ in the United States (and, apparently, seriously abridged in this version). It’s not currently in print, but can sometimes be found inexpensively second-hand.

Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews