![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In Britain it has remained a standard of children’s literature in the same way that “Charlotte’s Web” is in the United States. (She also wrote 16 adult novels, as well as plays and short stories.) Her first children’s book, “Ballet Shoes,” about three adopted sisters who attend a stage school in Bloomsbury, established her reputation, founded a genre (the stage-school novel) and was perhaps her greatest success. There had to be grit and perseverance too.Ĭentral to that ethos were the novels of Noel Streatfeild (1895-1986), the daughter of a vicar who was briefly an actress before writing 38 children’s novels between 19. If you wanted to be a ballerina or anything else, talent and looks weren’t enough. There were stern Russian dancing masters and flighty French teachers, and a particularly British strain that ran through all of this a solemn message. I was raised on a diet of boarding and ballet schools, sports days and summer hols, of aspiring dancers trudging through rainy London and riding horses over the purple heather of the Scottish Highlands. South Africa was already independent from Britain when I was growing up in Cape Town, but in matters of children’s literature, it was still entirely in thrall to colonialism. ![]()
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