I am slowly warming to Noel Streatfeild. I wasn’t very impressed by our first encounter (Saplings) but everything I have read by her since then has, in varying ways, delighted me. Gran-Nannie (recently reprinted as Tea By the Nursery Fire), which I read earlier this year, was no exception.
Based on the family’s stories about her father’s beloved nanny, Streatfeild has created a fictionalised account of the life of Emily Huckwell. Emily, a gardener’s daughter born in the 1870s, goes into service when she is only eleven. She starts as a nursery maid but over the years advances to under nurse, then nannie, and, in her old age, gran-nannie to the children of the boys and girls she once cared for.
Like Emily herself telling a bedtime story or a homily to the children, Streatfeild is absolutely matter-of-fact about the realities of Emily’s situation. There is no question about getting to choose her life’s path – Emily knows that she, like her mother and grandmother before her, will go into service. She does, however, go after the kind of work she wants and what she wants is to take care of children. Working briefly for one family, she is soon passed on to another younger and poorer family: the Burtons. Emily comes just before Mrs. Burton has her first child and ends up staying with them for the rest of her life, caring for all of the Burton children: John, Henry, Thomas, Mary, Matthew, and Lucy. Mrs. Burton is a disinterested mother and so it is Emily who sees the children through all the major events of their lives and it she who they run to with their news and their problems. Emily never marries, her one romance having come to a tragic end, but the Burton children are her family and they adore her as much as she does them.
A very affectionate tribute to someone who was clearly a beloved member of the family.
I read this many years ago Claire, and enjoyed it. If you liked this you would probably also like ‘A Vicarage Family’, which is an autobiographical novel of her childhood in an Edwardian vicarage. I think it was the better of the two books, as it was written from first hand experience rather than family stories, and the ‘heroine’ Victoria (Noel) is certainly not a saintly figure!
A Vicarage Family is on my TBR list so I’m delighted to hear you enjoyed it. I am very much looking forward to reading it.
I’ve just seen Simon’s review of this as well! This sounds lovely, but I’m also intrigued by the book that Michelle Ann mentions above.
I think all three of her semi-autobiographical “Vicarage” books sound really interesting.
How funny that we reviewed at essentially the same moment!
I think it’s interesting that we both ended up writing short reviews – maybe one of those books which is good fun to indulge in but not much to say about afterwards?
One of those very funny coincidences! As pleasant as I found this book, I really didn’t have much to say about it. I think it’s sweet but I’ll probably have forgotten all about it by the end of the year.
I know that at some point I am going to have to read this, but I’ve decided to read A Vicarage Family first. I liked Saplings – if I had one of those best-book lists it would be on it, but it’s obviously not everyone’s cup of tea.
I hope you enjoy A Vicarage Family. It sounds great!
I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Noel Streatfeld, particularly Party Shoes. Not heard of this one though.
I think I’ll have to read more of her children’s books, starting with the “Shoes” ones. They sound great.