Tea By The Nursery Fire A Children's Nanny at the Turn of the Century [Paperback] by Streatfeild, Noel

by Noel Streatfeild

Emily Huckwell spent almost her entire life working for one family. Born in a tiny Sussex village in the 1870s, she went into domestic service in the Burton household before she was twelve, earning £5 a year. She began as a nursery maid, progressing to under nurse and then head nanny, looking after two generations of children. One of the children in her care was the father of Noel Streatfeild, the author of Ballet Shoes and one of the best-loved children's writers of the 20th century. Basing her story on fact and family legend, Noel Streatfeild here tells Emily's story, and with her characteristic warmth and intimacy creates a fascinating portrait of Victorian and Edwardian life above and below stairs.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, History, British Literature, Victorian, Biography Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Mary Noel Streatfeild, known as Noel Streatfeild, was an author best known and loved for her children's books, including Ballet Shoes and Circus Shoes. She also wrote romances under the pseudonym Susan Scarlett .

She was born on Christmas Eve, 1895, the daughter of William Champion Streatfeild and Janet Venn and the second of six children to be born to the couple. Sister Ruth was the oldest, after Noel came Barbara, William ('Bill'), Joyce (who died of TB prior to her second birthday) and Richenda. Ruth and Noel attended Hastings and St. Leonard's Ladies' College in 1910. As an adult, she began theater work, and spent approximately 10 years in the theater.

During the Great War, in 1915 Noel worked first as a volunteer in a soldier's hospital kitchen near Eastbourne Vicarage and later produced two plays with her sister Ruth. When things took a turn for the worse on the Front in 1916 she moved to London and obtained a job making munitions in Woolwich Arsenal. At the end of the war in January 1919, Noel enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Art (later Royal Academy) in London.

In 1930, she began writing her first adult novel, The Whicharts, published in 1931. In June 1932, she was elected to membership of PEN. Early in 1936, Mabel Carey, children's editor of J. M. Dent and Sons, asks Noel to write a children's story about the theatre, which led to Noel completing Ballet Shoes in mid-1936. In 28 September 1936, when Ballet Shoes was published, it became an immediate best seller.

According to Angela Bull, Ballet Shoes was a reworked version of The Whicharts. Elder sister Ruth Gervis illustrated the book, which was published on the 28th September, 1936. At the time, the plot and general 'attitude' of the book was highly original, and destined to provide an outline for countless other ballet books down the years until this day. The first known book to be set at a stage school, the first ballet story to be set in London, the first to feature upper middle class society, the first to show the limits of amateurism and possibly the first to show children as self-reliant, able to survive without running to grownups when things went wrong.

In 1937, Noel traveled with Bertram Mills Circus to research The Circus is Coming (also known as Circus Shoes). She won the Carnegie gold medal in February 1939 for this book. In 1940, World War II began, and Noel began war-related work from 1940-1945. During this time, she wrote four adult novels, five children's books, nine romances, and innumerable articles and short stories. On May 10th, 1941, her flat was destroyed by a bomb. Shortly after WWII is over, in 1947, Noel traveled to America to research film studios for her book The Painted Garden. In 1949, she began delivering lectures on children's books. Between 1949 and 1953, her plays, The Bell Family radio serials played on the Children's Hour and were frequently voted top play of the year.

Early in 1960s, she decided to stop writing adult novels, but did write some autobiographical novels, such as A Vicarage Family in 1963. She also had written 12 romance novels under the pen name "Susan Scarlett." Her children's books number at least 58 titles. From July to December 1979, she suffered a series of small strokes and moved into a nursing home. In 1983, she received the honor Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). On 11 September 1986, she passed away in a nursing home.

Reviews

[Josephine (Jo) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not enjoyed a book so much for ages!
This is the semi biographical story of Emily Huckwell, the daughter of a lodge keeper in rural Sussex. The small lodge at the gates of a large estate had just two bedrooms, these had to suffice for Betty and Jem and their ten children. As Emily was the second eldest and it was becoming impossible to keep all the children at home she was put into service at the age of just ten. She was small for her age, (poor food and little of it) and her first job was to carry big trays up flights of stairs to the nursery. Emily knew that she wanted one day to be a Nanny and set out to work as hard as she could to gain that coveted position.

One of the children in her charge was the father of Noel Streatfeild, author of beautiful children's books like Ballet Shoes. It is Noel that tells the inspiring story of how Emily became so beloved by all the children that she raised over the years.

The story starts in the 1870's when Emily was born and tells of the happiness and sorrows that she faces during her years bring up other people's babies. In those days children of wealthy families saw very little of their parents, maybe an hour a day or less, so having a kind nanny was so important for them. In the case of Emily, she loved them as if they were all her own and felt their sorrows and joys along with them. It was to nanny that they ran with problems and on returning home from boarding school nanny was first on the list to see.

I found this whole book so endearing and admire the love that people such as Emily gave to the children in their charge.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you love English novels as I do, this is another one of those Upstairs/Downstairs type of books, with a look into the wealthy, landed, monied families before the first World War, only the Nursery and the Nanny instead of the kitchen is spotlighted here.

Wealthy people may have loved their children, but didn't care to spend a lot of time with them, turning them over to Nannies who were often loved and respected more by the children they raised, taught, and cared for. A good Nanny wielded a great deal of power in the household, and many went on to work in the Nurseries of the children they raised when they had children of their own. It was a life's calling for a lot of women.

This was written by Noel Streatfield who wrote a lot of children's books, using her own Father's Nanny as her inspiration. A simply written account of Emily Hockwell and her service to the family she entered into the service of as a maid at the age of 12. It was an interesting account of the world of the Nursery, which really was a world unto itself.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed stepping into late 1800's nursery life. It was a quick light read and I didn't feel I got to know Emily beyond her role as a nanny but none the less, found reading about these two families from such contrasting backgrounds interesting. Poor children, no wonder Nanny was always the first they rushed to when they returned home.

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

So indeed with regard to general contents and themes, I have definitely found Noel Streatfeild's 1976 (and written when she was over eighty years of age) Tea by the Nursery Fire: A Children's Nanny at the Turn of the Century (and which is based on the life of the author's father's nanny) both delightfully informative and often also very much eye-opening (in so far that we usually do tend to assume that the children of the aristocracy in 19th century Great Britain, that the offspring of the landed gentry would be living a happily contented life of luxury and ease, but indeed, these children, they in fact far more often than not only rather rarely saw and actively, regularly interacted with their biological parents, and that yes, in many ways, the loving family life that Nanny Emily Huckwell experienced in her lower class girlhood sounds to and for me and my eyes as sometimes if not even often considerably preferable to the not suffering physical want perhaps but all too much experiencing emotional and psychological distancing and parental neglect lives of upper-class children).

Also meticulously and in detail demonstrating how in the England of the 19th century, strict social stratifications were generally and usually omni-present and without fail adhered to in equal proportions both above and below stairs so to speak, I have definitely very much both enjoyed and also on an educational level truly appreciated the reading time spent with Tea by the Nursery Fire: A Children's Nanny at the Turn of the Century and in particular the always easy to understand informative flow of Noel Streatfeild's pen, with her presenting a both engaging and readable portrait not only of Emily Huckwell but also of her charges (of the children she was taking care of) and yes, what life was like for the so-called servant classes in the England in centuries past (but of course also and as already mentioned above pointing out that life was sometimes not all that easy and filled with total joy and contentment for the children the diverse nannies were taking care of, since many upper-class parents often did not really bother themselves all that much with their biological offspring and simply trusted that the nannies, governesses etc. would do all and also keep the children out of the parents' way as much as possible and from bothering them with the actual realities of life).

Highly recommended and full of interesting and enlightening information and tidbits is Tea by the Nursery Fire: A Children's Nanny at the Turn of the Century. And yes, the only reason why my rating is still only three and not yet four stars is that for one, I do feel that Noel Streatfeild keeps her narrative a bit too much on the surface so to speak and within very basic and limited in scope descriptions, so that we really do not ever get to know either Emily Huckwell or her child charges on an emotional and deeply personal level and that for two, seeing that Tea by the Nursery Fire: A Children's Nanny at the Turn of the Century is based on actual reality, I for one would want Noel Streatfeild to also have included a few scholarly suggestions for further reading (as this book, as Tea by the Nursery Fire: A Children's Nanny at the Turn of the Century has of course only whetted my reading appetite for more intensive study, and well, having a few suggested tomes to consider, this would certainly have been great).

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now this was a lovely idea: an author beloved by generations of children, towards the end of her life, telling the story a much-loved figure from her own childhood. The story of her Gran-Nannie.

Emily Huckwell was born in Sussex in the 1870s, the daughter of a gatekeeper and his wife. They were poor, though not the poorest, they did their very best for their children, and they were a happy family.

Like her mother, and her grandmother, before her Emily went into service at the ‘big house.’ She became a ‘maid to the nursery,’ running hither and thither, doing whatever jobs might be needed to keep things running smoothly for Nanny and her young charges.

Nanny saw potential in Emily, and she supported and guided her.

One day, quite instinctively, Emily went to the aid of a visitor who had torn her dress, mending it quickly and invisibly. That brought her the offer of a new job, in a new house.

Emily took it!

And so she became a nursery maid. She found herself working with a disagreeable Nanny, but she coped because the children loved her and she loved them, And in time she became Nanny. And finally Grand-Nannie, when her children brought their own children to stay.

It says much for her that one of those children would, so many years later, tell her story, built from known facts, family memories, and just enough imagination to hold things together.

Noel Streatfeild sets out Emily’s life simply and clearly. Had I not known it was a memoir I could have quite easily believed it was fiction.

The story moves along nicely, with just enough details along the way to illuminate lives and times. I saw how things were for Emily’s family, for the staff in the houses where she worked, for the children in her nurseries. I didn’t see the bigger picture, or how they really felt.

There was a hint of a lost love, but I couldn’t quite understand how the bright young woman became the old, faithful servant.

But this was a child writing of her Grand-Nannie, so maybe that was right.

It leaves this as a charming, light read for adults, and an accessible book for children.

And the ending – with the men Emily had raised and their sons who had visited her insistent that her coffin would not be taken to church by cart, that they would carry her on her final journey – underlines what it is above all else.

A loving tribute to a remarkable woman.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read practically every children’s novel written by Noel Streatfeild as a child I then had mixed emotions last year on reading the original adult novel The Whicharts which was later reworked for children as Ballet Shoes. This year I decided to try another book by this author, a biography of a nanny in Victorian Britain which was the last book the author wrote in 1976 at the age of 80. When reading the below review, this should be borne in mind as if I can write anything comprehensible at that age, I’ll be exceptionally proud of myself.

Tea by the Nursery Fire purports to tell the tale of the nanny who started work at Longton Place as a nanny to the children, Noel’s father and his siblings in the 1890s, although of course this was not long before Noel herself was born. Despite this unnerving discrepancies and having devoured the author’s autobiographical trilogy which began with The Vicarage Family, I was fully aware that the setting should have been that of a clergyman and Longton Place was not, the first two thirds of the book was an interesting view of life as a servant at a time when it was still possible to become a family retainer.

The last third was quite an abrupt end to Emily’s story with whole decades passing by in a flash as the first family of children grew up and produced offspring to care for on high days and holidays only.

The tale itself walked a line between the hard life of a girl of twelve, sent away to become a servant to make room for the ever growing brood of children her parents produced, and the enjoyment a servant could gain from taking a post that allowed her to use the skills of mothering she had learnt at her mother’s knee.

I have to confess the writing was fairly consistently clumsy and depended greatly on this reader’s nostalgia for her children’s books, partly because it isn’t clear whether this book was aimed at those child readers themselves, or those of us who are slightly older although I’m glad to say it steers well clear of being patronising.

As a snapshot of social history, it works well enough but the tone being told through family stories passed down when Emily was in old age, lacks any real insight into the subject herself which is a great shame as the story without it feels as though it has been painted with very light brush-strokes.

Not my favourite of Noel Streatfeild’s books by a long way but not a bad little book for some insight into the tales those who worked across the turn of the century told to those they loved.

[Emmkay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complete comfort read! I loved Noel Streatfeild's children's novels when I was growing up. This is a bit different - a fictionalized (but not quite fiction) account of the life of her father's nanny. Emily was born in the 1870s and went into service as an 'under nursery maid' at the age of 11. A simple, cozy read, with interesting details of domestic life at the time.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been a little while since I read anything non-fiction, it does seem that this year I haven’t often been in the right frame of mind for it. So when this one came my way it did look just the thing to get me back to reading the occasional non-fiction work.
Tea by the Nursery Fire; such a lovely title, it conjures up images of a bygone age. This was a time when the women from one section of society brought up the children of another. The author of this book is of course a very well-known children’s writer, the perfect person one would think to tell the story of an adored children’s nanny. First published in 1976, this lovely little edition has been brought out this year by Virago press.
Emily Huckwell was born in a Sussex village in the 1870’s to a large family, her mother and her grandmother had both been in service up at the big house, and it was here that Emily was destined to go. So at the age of eleven, her hair up for the first time, wearing her first full length skirt Emily goes to the big house as a nursery maid. A good hearted girl well used to nursery work - having had to help her mother when she was very ill – Emily was able to show her potential early. However her time at this house was to be fairly short. When a visiting young lady tears her dress, Emily offers to repair it, being a gifted needlewoman. The young lady is Mrs Sylvia Burton, who was soon to have her first child. Sylvia requests that Emily goes to them as under nurse, and so Emily moves to Longton Place, not far away, where she starts her long career as nurse and later Nannie to the large family that Sylvia has. That first born child, John, however always retains a particularly fond place in Emily’s heart.
“In the gentle peace of the nursery week faded into week and month into month, all so like each other it was hard to remember time was passing. Except by flowers. Emily had always loved flowers and now she taught the children to love them. The first celandines, a picnic to pick primroses to decorate the church for Easter. Wood anemones, cuckoo flowers and the black thorn. Then, with a rush, the summer glories, the May trees, the rhododendrons and the azaleas; Longton Place was famous for its azaleas.”
Admittedly there is no real depth to this memoir – which actually reads rather like a novel – though it is charming and deeply affectionate. This simple uneducated woman played such an enormous part in the lives of the children of one family that the stories of her life and work were talked about and savoured, to be written down. She must have been a truly lovely woman. Even when Emily has a terrible private grief to contend with, her thoughts are always with the children in her care. She fights for them when they are ill, counsels them as they grow and start out on their own lives, worries about them while they are away at school. This is a fascinating period of British history, in the company of Emily we see the children’s father go off to the Boer war; we see the preparations for the coronation of Edward VII, the outbreak of World War 1, the advent of the motor car. Through these changing times Emily is a calm and loving presence in the lives of John, Henry, Thomas, Mary Matthew and Lucy, and soon it is their children who Gran-Nannie, as she comes to be called, is serving tea to by the nursery fire.
This was an enjoyable, fairly light memoir, which rather suited my mood this last couple of days.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book features Emily, who was born in the 19th century into an impoverished home with a large number of siblings. At the age of eleven, she begins in service as assistant to an upper class nursery. She gradually progresses to become a much loved ‘Nannie’ in her teens and through the rest of he life.

While loosely biographical, some of the chronology is incorrect, and many of the people have fictional names. The character of Emily is nicely done, with the majority of the book from her viewpoint. However I was a little disappointed that the writing doesn’t flow as Noel Streatfeild’s other books do; the sentence structure feels stilted in places, with some of the punctuation lacking entirely.

The latter sections of the book are a bit depressing, as Emily loses the opportunity of marriage, and then young men around her go off to the first World War and don’t return. The ending is then rather abrupt. However, I assume that the majority of the narrative is based on factual reminiscences so perhaps the chronological gaps are where little or nothing was recalled.

Still, overall the book paints a good picture of life in the late 19th century and is a useful read from the social history point of view. Certainly worth having for fans of Noel Streatfeild, or for anyone - adult or teen, perhaps even older children - who are interested in this era.

Three and a half stars would be fairer.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love this kind of memoir - a woman's loving dedication to the children in her charge, and the difference she makes in their lives (and in the lives of their children too). The very fact that Streatfeild took the time to write this book speaks volumes. And such irony! That the titled rich would place the raising of their children in the hands of women they considered their inferiors! Did they not think that their children might come to love and respect these nurses and nannies more than their parents? Who had the real influence?

[Suzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Noel Streatfeild's character development and beautiful turn of phrase are evident in this true story of her father's nanny in Victorian/Edwardian England. The story starts with Emily turning 12 and going to work, as it happened in those days. From small beginnings as an under-maid, she moved to another house and began her work in the nursery. This story is a beautiful snapshot into the life of a nanny and how people managed in difficult times. It is beautifully descriptive with moments of tenderness throughout.

[Lydia Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating depiction of life below stairs as told through the eyes of Noel Streatfeild whose father was brought up by nanny Emily Huckwell. Reading it really filled in a few of the gaps behind the story of Ballet Shoes, a childhood favourite of so many of us. Well worth a read although the editing lets it down & be aware that many (now thankfully dated) views are aired!

[Lisa Brantly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Enjoyable. Recommened

[Zen Cho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fictionalised biography by Streatfeild of her family's nanny. I enjoyed this a lot but am a bit dubious about how accurate it is -- or rather, I am suspicious of fully embracing Streatfeild's account of someone she knew and in relation to whom she was in a position of power, if that makes sense. But that kind of fuzziness is part of what gives the book its strength, because Streatfeild clearly loved her nanny and she was clearly a profound influence (note how nearly every Streatfeild book has a nurse character). I think Emily does remain something of a cipher throughout, which probably tells you something in itself.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet beautifully crafted book written by Noel Streatfield
about her father's nanny. While not hiding the sad and at times tragic aspects of this woman's life it also gives tribute to her courage and strength. Perhaps in writing this story Noel suggests all children would benefit from an adult like Emily Huckwell in their lives.

[Glenys Day]

Favourite author from my childhood. Enjoyed story based on her own childhood.

[Novelle Novels · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 out of 5 stars
This was the perfect book to read at the moment and although it’s non fiction the writing is still magical enough that you can’t put it down. Emily Huckwell was born in a tiny Sussex village in the 1870’s. She went into service at such a young age which did happen a lot at that time but is hard. She starts as a nursery maid and her career progresses. One of the children in her care was the father of the author who has also written other children’s books. I love hearing about family life in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. I love Emily soooo much and following her was so interesting. Love this book and if you like historical fiction from these eras then pick this up.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tea by the Nursery Fire tells the story of real-life figure Emily Huckwell, who went into domestic service when she was just eleven years old. Emily began her work as ‘a maid to wait on the nursery’, and soon had her position elevated to under nurse when her competency was realised by those she worked with and for. In this volume, Streatfeild tells Emily’s story, pieced together both from fact and family history.

The book is split into five different sections, beginning with ‘The Child’ and progressing to ‘Nursery Maid’ and ‘Gran-Nannie’. Born into ‘grinding’ poverty in Sussex in the 1870s, ‘near enough to the sea to smell it when the wind was right’, Emily was the eldest daughter of the Huckwell family. The Huckwells were, Emily told those in her charge, ‘a little better brought up than the other children in the hamlet, for her mother… knew what was what’. It was known from her birth that she would go to work in a grand house – ‘up would go her hair and off she would be sent to work’ – as her mother and grandmother had done before her.

We do not learn just about Emily, but of her family and those in her care. The third person perspective used throughout allows her memoirs to be read as something akin to a comforting story, which is a lovely touch. The sense of time and place in the book is evoked beautifully from the outset, and it is clear that Streatfeild has great compassion for Emily, who looked after her own father when he was young. Indeed, we as readers feel such sympathy for her, sent away at such a young age when she was ‘no bigger’n a gnat’.

This is not merely an important book from a social point of view. It also has regional information pertaining to Sussex in the period in which Emily lived there, and a wealth of historical details. We learn about the food commonly eaten in Victorian and Edwardian times and the standard of schooling in her small village – ‘there was provision for a clever boy or girl to stay on until they were eighteen, but this had never happened. Money was too badly needed in the cottages for such fancy nonsense’.

In fact, the book is wonderfully Victorian, both in its style and in terms of the language and dialogue used throughout. We enter a world of ‘gobbits’, the ‘tallyman’, ‘Pilgrim baskets’ and annual ‘gleaning’ in the cornfields. The divide between rich and poor is shown almost immediately, both above and below stairs. We learn what the staff thought about this great chasm between the standings of them and their masters, and the differences between the classes: ‘Funny gentry are, never seem to want their own children’.

With regard to Streatfeild’s writing style, Tea by the Nursery Fire is not always the easiest of books to read due to the lack of punctuation, and several sentences have to be read more than once. Still, the information which these sentences include is lovely in itself, both anecdotal and heartwarming. Small interwoven stories are included throughout, which has created a charming and interesting little book. Tea by the Nursery Fire is a must-read for anyone interested in Victorian and Edwardian history or the role of nannies, or for those looking to read a lovingly realised history of a marvellous woman.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Emily Huckwell was born in a tiny Sussex village in the 1870s and went into deomestic service in the Burton household before she was twelve, earning £5 a year. She began as a nursery maid, progressing to under nurse and then head nanny, looking after two generations of children.

“One of the children in her care was the father of Noel Streatfeild, the author of Ballet Shoes and among the best-loved children’s writers of the twentieth century. Drawin on fact and family legent, Noel Streatfeild here tells Emily’s story6, and with her characteristic warmth and intimacy creates a fascinating portrait of Victorian and Edwardian life above and below stairs.”
~~back cover

This was a delightful, charming book! Emily was lucky to have gotten a place in a household that treated its servants like family, and lucky to have enjoyed a long and happy life there (Charles Dickens could never have written this book!) The children were lucky to have had her for a nanny, as she cared for each of them and treated them all with gentleness and respect -- not every nanny was so nice to their charges!

A very gentle portrayal of life in the Victorian/Edwardian nursery, and an honest mirror of the varying personalities of the family.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This, she supposed, was Lady Pycroft.

The imposing one glanced at Emily and said:

'The new girl for the nursery, I presume.'

Emily gave another curtsey.

"Yes, M'Lady.'

The newcomer accepted the title with a slight smile. Shocked, Mrs. Gosden broke in:

'This is the housekeeper, Mrs. Holthouse,' she said. 'If you should ever have occasion to speak to her you calls her 'ma'am.'

A sentimental memoir of the author's father's nursemaid, this book really showed the difficulties of life in the late nineteenth century for servants! Servants were expected to 'know their place' and often children began lives of service before the teen years, with long hours and little remuneration.

It was clear that Emily, or "Nannie", was content with her lot, although the work was not easy. Children of 'the gentry' were basically brought up by their nannies and brought downstairs to visit their parents for an hour a day at tea time. Emily's hopes for a normal life and a home and family of her own are irrevocably changed when an accident befalls her fiance.

World War I is lightly touched on and the tragic losses due to the influenza epidemic that followed.

A fast, pleasant read.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a "memoir" of Noel Streatfield's father's nanny, and if that seems convoluted it's because it is. The author re-tells memories told her by "Gran-Nannie". This has the unfortunate consequence of deadening the telling because Streatfield chose to tell instead of showing. If she had written it as a narrative it would have been much more vital and interesting, instead of what it was, rather stodgy and dull with all the life sapped out so it was like looking at old photos of relations that died before you were born.

[Felicity · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this autobiographical account about Streatfeild's Gran-nannie. It had plenty of warmth and love and also gave me an insight in to what it was like for servants at the turn of the century. Occasionly I found it a little confusing and noticed that when Streatfield was describing how someone was related to another person that she missed out a lot of commas which would have made things a bit clearer.

A lovely account of a woman who was clearly loved.

[Deena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovingly written picture of life in the Empire. Arguably apologist, but not intended as such, and therefore worth reading and worthy of enjoyment.

[Gabrielle S · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sweet, simple book about the life of Noel Streatfeild's father's nanny. It was a fascinating look into the life of an ordinary working class girl then woman.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful glimpse into the upstairs downstairs world of Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

[Maryqsomebody · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy Downton Abbey or Call The Midwife, this book will be a pleasant jaunt into the downstairs but actually upstairs of a Victorian/Edwardian aristocratic home.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this story about a nanny in the 1880s, She was the nanny of 2 generations of children. One of her charges was Noel's father

[Martyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what age group this book was intended for, but probably mid-teens and upwards due to the adult (sexual) nature of some of the remarks - though in most cases the way they are phrased is so careful that the allusions would probably pass completely over the heads of the younger and more innocent/uninitiated readers. But it's an enlightening and eye-opening read, giving an insight into cultural and social and vocational customs in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England. It supplies the reader with the kind of information which could come in useful as background information when reading a novel set in that time period, where such knowledge was taken for granted amongst the original readership and didn't need to be explained. It helps to set things in context, to give an idea of the way working- and middle-class houses operated, of the multiplicity of domestic servants and the hierarchies which existed amongst them, the regulations which sought to keep everyone in their place.

Streatfeild lived through a period of major upheavals in British social history, being born at the tale end of the Victorian era, growing up in Edwardian England, and living through two World Wars and all that came between and came after. She recognised that change, the fact that post-war children were growing up in a world very different to the one she grew up in, that their lives and prospects would be very different, and she have wanted to capture the memories of those bygone days for posterity, to remind the future generations of where they had come from, of the lives their parents and grandparents had endured and enjoyed. Others of her books she wrote or edited which deal in part with similar themes are A Vicarage Family, The Day Before Yesterday, and The Years of Grace, to name just three which I happen to have read so far.

[Hilary Tesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of the well known children’s book, Ballet Shoes, here recounts, with great affection, the life of a beloved family Nannie, Emily Huckwell, born in the 1870s and sent into "service" at only 12 years old.
Still in her teens, Emily takes charge of "her" nursery and it's as though she immediately becomes the archetype of Nannies, appearing, in a way, ageless and using all her life, a set of stock phrases inherited from her predecessor. This must be how her charges saw her and the impression passed down to the author.

(The blurb suggests Emily looked after the author’s father - but if this is the case, names have been changed because they don’t correspond with her family tree.)

It’s a very interesting account of how upper class children were brought up in the late Victorian and Edwardian age, when, because they were rarely seen by their parents but instead left in the care of a team of nursery staff, a caring Nannie could often be held in much greater affection than their own mother.

[Glenn Lipham · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a Lovely Story

I must say, Kindle has introduced me to so many writers of whom I would never have heard were it not for this service. I prefer books (fiction and non-fiction) written prior to the fifties, although some children's books written through the early sixties are good.

In any case, this book was a story of a pure heart, never looking out for herself, always looking to others and their needs. I cannot say I am of that ilk, but I know those who are, and, for me, this book tells their story.

It is simply written, I believe mainly for young children, but certainly this "woman of a certain age" enjoyed it immensely. I will look for a physical copy to put on my bookshelves to read with little ones when they come to visit. I believe in having children read or be read to using physical books first, as it, I feel, gives them a greater respect for the written word as a whole, and books, in particular.