Diana the Daring

by Ethel Talbot

184 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

A prolific English children's author, known primarily for her girls' school stories, Ethel Mary Talbot was born in 1880, in Sutton Coldfield. She was the daughter of Hugh Talbot, and his wife, Margaret Ellen Turrell, committed members of the Plymouth Brethren, and had at least eight sisters and one brother. The family moved frequently, and little is known of Talbot's early years, or her education. As an adult, she settled in Edinburgh, where she shared a house with her friend and fellow school story author E.M. de Foubert, from 1914 to 1916. Talbot remained in Edinburgh until the 1930s, at which point she moved to London. During WWII she moved to Hayward's Heath, where she died in 1944.

Reviews

[Sally S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I put my review up a star because although my edition was published in 1960 i see this was written in the 1930s. 19 year old Diana Heath loses her father and then discovers she is poor. After her guardian turns out to have feet of clay, Diana sets out to make her own way in the world amongst the ordinary folk by getting A Job (you always get the impression it wants to be capitalised). Of course she is a plucky upper middle class girl from a public school so everywhere she turns there are people horrified that such a girl should have to get A Job and live like common people. Diana has 3 jobs over the course of this novel and doesn't have to fill out a single application form and I'm not sure she follows through with the references either. Also she's amazing at all of them. Two of her employers want to adopt her as a daughter but she refuses because she has cast off luxury and wants to shift for herself. She gets through a whole year of glorious independence before she gets engaged to a man who she's had all of 4 conversations with, but it is the 1930s after all. Still, I enjoyed it and Diana certainly was daring in an era appropriate sort of way.