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Sadler's Wells #2
Veronica at the Wells
A dazzling opportunity - and an impossible decision...
Ballet means everything to Veronica Weston, just as music does to Sebastian. And when she is offered a place at Sadler's Wells Ballet School, it looks as if dreams really do come true - until events take a frightening turn.
It seems not everyone welcomes such a talented newcomer; but with the chance of her first part at Covent Garden, Veronica isn't about to let anything get her down. At last she looks set for stardom; but if she accepts the role, it could mean losing Sebastian forever...
Ballet means everything to Veronica Weston, just as music does to Sebastian. And when she is offered a place at Sadler's Wells Ballet School, it looks as if dreams really do come true - until events take a frightening turn.
It seems not everyone welcomes such a talented newcomer; but with the chance of her first part at Covent Garden, Veronica isn't about to let anything get her down. At last she looks set for stardom; but if she accepts the role, it could mean losing Sebastian forever...
189 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
3 people are currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
Lorna Hill
62 books50 followersHill attended school in Durham and then went to Le Manoir in Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. She obtained a BA at Durham University, and there met her husband, a clergyman. They moved to the remote parish of Matfen, Northumberland, where she played the organ in church and ran a Sunday school.
Hill's career as an author began when her daughter Vicki, then about ten years old, found a story her mother had written as a child and asked for about its characters. The result was a series of eight books about Marjorie & Co, illustrating them herself. These began to be published in London in 1948. They were followed by the Patience series and several others.
When Vicki left home to be a ballet student at Sadler's Wells in London, Hill missed her and began to write her Dream of Sadler's Wells series. She eventually wrote a total of 40 children's books, as well as La Sylphide, a commissioned biography of the dancer Marie Taglioni, and two romances for adults, published in 1978. Hill was then obliged to stop writing by ill health. She is said to have been firm with publishers and to have earned more from her books than many of her contemporaries. Translations of some titles into several other languages appeared, including less usual ones such as Finnish (by Pirkko Biström, 1991), Indonesian (1994), Czech (1995) and Slovenian (by Bernarda Petelinšek, 1996).
More information at Wikipedia.
Hill's career as an author began when her daughter Vicki, then about ten years old, found a story her mother had written as a child and asked for about its characters. The result was a series of eight books about Marjorie & Co, illustrating them herself. These began to be published in London in 1948. They were followed by the Patience series and several others.
When Vicki left home to be a ballet student at Sadler's Wells in London, Hill missed her and began to write her Dream of Sadler's Wells series. She eventually wrote a total of 40 children's books, as well as La Sylphide, a commissioned biography of the dancer Marie Taglioni, and two romances for adults, published in 1978. Hill was then obliged to stop writing by ill health. She is said to have been firm with publishers and to have earned more from her books than many of her contemporaries. Translations of some titles into several other languages appeared, including less usual ones such as Finnish (by Pirkko Biström, 1991), Indonesian (1994), Czech (1995) and Slovenian (by Bernarda Petelinšek, 1996).
More information at Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
August 7, 2023
Why do I find this series from a bygone age so appealing, even now? Surely a series of books for young adults, set in the ballet world, would be of limited appeal, and err towards an unpopular, rather unsavoury elitism? Even the original covers, watercolours by the ballet artist Eve Guthrie, show an exclusively classical approach to ballet. Surely books such as this one, written in the 1950s, would have little of relevance to say today? Yet when I read them now I am just as gripped as I was reading them all those years ago, just a decade after they were written, as a young teenager. (And I never went to a ballet lesson in my life.)
In the first of the series, “A Dream of Sadler’s Wells”, 14-year-old Veronica Weston had suddenly been uprooted from her life in London and the ballet classes she loved so much, when her father died. The reader soon starts to root for Veronica, as an impulsive, illogical, warm-hearted, intelligent and occasionally exasperating central character, who is completely obsessed with ballet. She and her world feel very real. The novel shows how she worked hard, and fought against the odds to continue practising the ballet she so loved, until she finally achieved her ambition and gained a coveted place at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School. This is where the 1951 novel, Veronica At The Wells, begins.
In the second title in the Sadler’s Wells series, Veronica is now 15, and beginning her time at the world famous school at 45 Colet Gardens. She is back living in the boarding house where we first encountered her, and soon finds that she has much to learn. We meet again her landlady, Mrs. Crapper, and Jonathan, the artist who lives upstairs. Both are well-observed, and a way of indicating to us the kindness apparent in Veronica. It would be easy to make Mrs. Crapper either a figure of fun, or someone who makes Veronica’s life a misery. In fact, through Veronica’s eyes, we see a loving, caring person, who has put her most precious possessions in Veronica’s room to make her feel at home. We see that they are rather tacky, “gifts from Margate”, and see Mrs. Crapper sighing sadly over her long-lost husband who “went to the dogs”, and dressing up in her finery, completely inappropriately, to go to the ballet.
Veronica has little guidance from others in the boarding house, kind and friendly though they are, and the strict ways of the Sadler’s Wells School are strange to her. The life is hard, the classes gruelling, and by the time she has travelled back to her lodgings, she is exhausted. There are also many difficulties at the school itself, which are not to do with dancing. Not all the other students are welcoming, and events soon take a frightening turn. More than one student is envious of her talent, and the jealousy of another student almost keeps her from her first big chance. This deliberate nastiness not only horrifies her but also takes her by surprise. Veronica has to face both opposition, duplicity and even sabotage, and keep her objective firmly in mind – to dance a principal role at Covent Garden.
However Veronica is determined. She sees her classmates leave for easier dancing positions, but she soon settles down, and loves her new life, despite the many difficulties and disappointments. At first she sees only a few minor triumphs. But Veronica is a born dancer, revelling in the routine and working hard on perfecting her Art – though it is not achieved without sacrifice.
Veronica spends the Christmas holidays in Northumbria, where coincidentally she discovers that the artist who lodges upstairs is secretly Readers may have suspected the attraction between the two, but Veronica remained oblivious. This was probably partly due to her youth, and the time the book was written. It stretches the credibility to believe that a fifteen-year-old girl today would not notice a dawning romance between two of her housemates. However the ballet-obsessed Veronica seems quite young for her age, in matters of the heart, and perhaps a girl in the 1950s might be less likely to think along those lines too.
We have yet more indications of Veronica’s kindness and sense of fairness, during this time in Northumbria. In the first book, arriving at Bracken Hall, the large estate where her wealthy relatives lived, Veronica assumed that she should open the gates herself, rather than let the chauffeur do it. This was met with shocked disapproval by her snobbish Aunt June and her cousins. This willingness to help was rewarded months later. The chauffeur Perkins says:
“Well, miss,” said Perkins, wiping his face with a red and white spotted hankie and getting back into the driving-seat, “I sees it this way. When you comes to Bracken, you offers to get out of the car and open the gates for me. That was the very first thing you does. Remember? ‘I’ll do it, Perkins!’ you says. ‘Don’t you bother, Perkins,’ you says. Well, I says to myself that very day – if I can do anything for that youngster, you bet I will!”
Veronica at the Wells is told in the first person, just as the previous one had been, yet we still see Veronica’s personality very clearly. On one memorable occasion, when she meets two professionals in the world of ballet, who could be very important to her in her career, she is more concerned with kindness to animals. She sees a youth at the zoo giving her favourite monkey a lighted cigarette. Her blood boils, and she is incensed enough to pursue him, and push him into a pond, despite what anyone else thinks.
During her time in Northumbria, Veronica is offered a part in a production, but she must return to London immediately. Of course she will do this at all costs. However, with supreme irony, the role she is to play will clash with another important performance.
During the first book we were introduced to Sebastian Scott, a cousin of the wealthy relatives up North, who took her in when her father died. He is slightly older than her, and has given her a lot of encouragement when she felt her relatives did not understand her passion for ballet. Veronica has grown quite close to Sebastian, and although she is not romantically inclined, she is sensitive to his feelings. Sebastian now lives in the gardener’s lodge, and ostensibly accepts this. But watching Sebastian, on one occasion, Veronica suddenly realises how much he minds his cousins living in his ancestral home.
Veronica’s feelings are often expressed in ballet, rather than to other people. Highly sensitive to beauty, especially that of the Northumbrian landscape which she has quickly grown to love, in the first book she danced “Les Sylphides” on the grass in her cotton frock as a response to Sebastian’s piano playing, and on another occasion she made a beautiful arabesque in the snow. From incidents like these, Sebastian has always recognised how talented she is, and is now at the beginning of his own career as a composer.
This strand of the story is very reminiscent of Powell and Pressburger’s classic 1948 ballet film “The Red Shoes”, released just three years earlier, and starring Moira Shearer. In both, the lead character reveals a commitment to her career not altogether typical for the time. There are different endings, but the characters remain true to their principles, and their passion for their Art.
Veronica’s talent, courage and determination, allied with the encouragement she receives from a few close friends, enables her to triumph over the difficulties and petty obstacles others have put in her way. The book ends as the reader has hoped, The final pages are oddly truncated, covering about the next four years in her burgeoning career, making the reader suspect that the Sadler’s Wells series may be about to move on with new characters.
Yet none of this really explains why the series of fourteen Sadler’s Wells books written by Lorna Hill have been reprinted so many times over the years, with more contemporary covers and artwork. Nor does it explain why they seem to be of wider interest than just to balletomanes.
After rereading the first two, several things become evident. We may be in the world of ballet, but this is no heavily romanticised fairytale world. It is not a world full of glitter and pink tutus, but a world where the exhausted dancers have sore feet, and spend their spare time mending their leotards and shoes. They are real people in the real world, and although the final end ballet is undeniably romantic, the way there is dauntingly hard. Neither are the dancing schools full of precocious brats, who want for nothing, and have spent their lives so far delighting their mothers with displays of tap, ballroom, and other sorts of dance. There are some of those to be sure, but there are many others. Several of the talented students at the school see dancing as the only way to escape poverty and a humdrum life of drudgery. Then there are those who are showy, skilful dancers who lack artistic integrity, but have the ambition and drive to succeed. There are also the truly talented, whose technique is good, and sensitivity is excellent, but who are destined to spend their career in the corps de ballet, because they have not the necessary confidence to push themselves forward.
In fact, what we are shown is a cross-section of society. All human life is here, and we are not to know who will get that lucky break, and whether we will feel they deserve it. Only a very few will have what it takes to be successful, and through talent, hard work and determination succeed to the coveted position of prima ballerina for Sadler’s Wells ballet. As a consequence, they will then inevitably dedicate their entire life to dancing, for only then do they truly come alive. It makes for compelling reading.
This, then, is the crux. Forget today’s ideas of celebrity status conferred as a kind of fluke. Here we have reward for hard work and determination – and what a reward it proves to be. Lorna Hill makes it quite clear that the creative arts of dancing, or music, or painting, or writing are the most satisfying thing one could ever do with one’s life. But she also hammers home the point that it doesn’t just happen by accident. It has to be earned, and her characters have to work for it with dedication, even sometimes to obsession, if they want to succeed at the creative life.
Yet it never seems to be a pipe dream, an unattainable object, but always seems possible, if someone has the talent, and works hard enough. It won’t appear by magic out of the blue, but needs to be planned for, gone without things for, worked as hard as you could for, sweated out your guts every day for. Just having the talent, and a graceful sensitivity would not be enough.
It’s a laudable approach to life, for anyone who is inclined to devote their life to Art. But there is something else about these books too. In many ways, they have a forward-looking feminist approach.
Take the part where Sebastian Scott
Now, this sort of attitude would make an average 21st century female indignant, at the very least. But this was published in the 1950s, and Sebastian was only expressing what was a commonplace view at the time. Did Veronica agree?
No, she most certainly did not. They had a blazing row and she went off to London, for her own role, not doubting her own conviction for a moment. She knew absolutely that that her own career was just as important as his. Yes, she was miserable, to not be able to support him, but also she was unhappy that he did not seem to understand her dilemma, or that she could not sacrifice her big chance to watch his performance.
So, to itemise these concerns, we have the creative life as one to be desired, rather than a life devoted to making money, or getting ahead socially. We have clear indications of the enormous satisfaction of success to be achieved, based on hard work. We also have the idea, a little subversive for the time, that it is justifiable for a young woman to put her own aims and ambitions in life, above those of the young man she is involved with. By the end of the book, she has matured enough not only to realise that Sebastian will never apologise to her, but to put it aside and understand what his gesture means.
In fact I have noticed that some books for girls in the post war years, reflected a strong, independent spirit in their characters, which may come as a surprise to modern readers.They now seem quite progressive, often stressing academic, individual or artistic achievement over previous ideas of homemaking. Careers and self-development had become something girls were encouraged to reflect on.
The overriding concerns of previous decades girls’ heroines, were loyalty to their friends or school, and disdaining anything that felt dishonourable to their country. Veronica never thinks about such notions, complaining bitterly that the only books her cousins possess are this sort of story. This is not to say that Veronica does not have her own principles. When she is targeted for some unpleasant and subversive tricks, making her miss an important audition, it never occurs to her to tell on the perpetrator,
A casual reader might assume that ballet books from this era are elitist, and perhaps exploitative. Perhaps though assumptions like this are just as erroneous. This series is far more about individualism, developing one’s talents and seeking one’s own path.
In a way the book is both similar and vastly different from “The Red Shoes. It is tempting to wonder whether, writing just a few years later, Lorna Hill was making a deliberate statement; whether she was responding to Powell and Pressburger’s film, by making Veronica’s choices the bold and brave ones she hoped a modern young woman would make.
The ending to these books may feel satisfying, and have a “dream come true” quality, but a lot of hard work, pain and toil have contributed to that fairytale ending.
In the first of the series, “A Dream of Sadler’s Wells”, 14-year-old Veronica Weston had suddenly been uprooted from her life in London and the ballet classes she loved so much, when her father died. The reader soon starts to root for Veronica, as an impulsive, illogical, warm-hearted, intelligent and occasionally exasperating central character, who is completely obsessed with ballet. She and her world feel very real. The novel shows how she worked hard, and fought against the odds to continue practising the ballet she so loved, until she finally achieved her ambition and gained a coveted place at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet School. This is where the 1951 novel, Veronica At The Wells, begins.
In the second title in the Sadler’s Wells series, Veronica is now 15, and beginning her time at the world famous school at 45 Colet Gardens. She is back living in the boarding house where we first encountered her, and soon finds that she has much to learn. We meet again her landlady, Mrs. Crapper, and Jonathan, the artist who lives upstairs. Both are well-observed, and a way of indicating to us the kindness apparent in Veronica. It would be easy to make Mrs. Crapper either a figure of fun, or someone who makes Veronica’s life a misery. In fact, through Veronica’s eyes, we see a loving, caring person, who has put her most precious possessions in Veronica’s room to make her feel at home. We see that they are rather tacky, “gifts from Margate”, and see Mrs. Crapper sighing sadly over her long-lost husband who “went to the dogs”, and dressing up in her finery, completely inappropriately, to go to the ballet.
Veronica has little guidance from others in the boarding house, kind and friendly though they are, and the strict ways of the Sadler’s Wells School are strange to her. The life is hard, the classes gruelling, and by the time she has travelled back to her lodgings, she is exhausted. There are also many difficulties at the school itself, which are not to do with dancing. Not all the other students are welcoming, and events soon take a frightening turn. More than one student is envious of her talent, and the jealousy of another student almost keeps her from her first big chance. This deliberate nastiness not only horrifies her but also takes her by surprise. Veronica has to face both opposition, duplicity and even sabotage, and keep her objective firmly in mind – to dance a principal role at Covent Garden.
However Veronica is determined. She sees her classmates leave for easier dancing positions, but she soon settles down, and loves her new life, despite the many difficulties and disappointments. At first she sees only a few minor triumphs. But Veronica is a born dancer, revelling in the routine and working hard on perfecting her Art – though it is not achieved without sacrifice.
Veronica spends the Christmas holidays in Northumbria, where coincidentally she discovers that the artist who lodges upstairs is secretly Readers may have suspected the attraction between the two, but Veronica remained oblivious. This was probably partly due to her youth, and the time the book was written. It stretches the credibility to believe that a fifteen-year-old girl today would not notice a dawning romance between two of her housemates. However the ballet-obsessed Veronica seems quite young for her age, in matters of the heart, and perhaps a girl in the 1950s might be less likely to think along those lines too.
We have yet more indications of Veronica’s kindness and sense of fairness, during this time in Northumbria. In the first book, arriving at Bracken Hall, the large estate where her wealthy relatives lived, Veronica assumed that she should open the gates herself, rather than let the chauffeur do it. This was met with shocked disapproval by her snobbish Aunt June and her cousins. This willingness to help was rewarded months later. The chauffeur Perkins says:
“Well, miss,” said Perkins, wiping his face with a red and white spotted hankie and getting back into the driving-seat, “I sees it this way. When you comes to Bracken, you offers to get out of the car and open the gates for me. That was the very first thing you does. Remember? ‘I’ll do it, Perkins!’ you says. ‘Don’t you bother, Perkins,’ you says. Well, I says to myself that very day – if I can do anything for that youngster, you bet I will!”
Veronica at the Wells is told in the first person, just as the previous one had been, yet we still see Veronica’s personality very clearly. On one memorable occasion, when she meets two professionals in the world of ballet, who could be very important to her in her career, she is more concerned with kindness to animals. She sees a youth at the zoo giving her favourite monkey a lighted cigarette. Her blood boils, and she is incensed enough to pursue him, and push him into a pond, despite what anyone else thinks.
During her time in Northumbria, Veronica is offered a part in a production, but she must return to London immediately. Of course she will do this at all costs. However, with supreme irony, the role she is to play will clash with another important performance.
During the first book we were introduced to Sebastian Scott, a cousin of the wealthy relatives up North, who took her in when her father died. He is slightly older than her, and has given her a lot of encouragement when she felt her relatives did not understand her passion for ballet. Veronica has grown quite close to Sebastian, and although she is not romantically inclined, she is sensitive to his feelings. Sebastian now lives in the gardener’s lodge, and ostensibly accepts this. But watching Sebastian, on one occasion, Veronica suddenly realises how much he minds his cousins living in his ancestral home.
Veronica’s feelings are often expressed in ballet, rather than to other people. Highly sensitive to beauty, especially that of the Northumbrian landscape which she has quickly grown to love, in the first book she danced “Les Sylphides” on the grass in her cotton frock as a response to Sebastian’s piano playing, and on another occasion she made a beautiful arabesque in the snow. From incidents like these, Sebastian has always recognised how talented she is, and is now at the beginning of his own career as a composer.
This strand of the story is very reminiscent of Powell and Pressburger’s classic 1948 ballet film “The Red Shoes”, released just three years earlier, and starring Moira Shearer. In both, the lead character reveals a commitment to her career not altogether typical for the time. There are different endings, but the characters remain true to their principles, and their passion for their Art.
Veronica’s talent, courage and determination, allied with the encouragement she receives from a few close friends, enables her to triumph over the difficulties and petty obstacles others have put in her way. The book ends as the reader has hoped, The final pages are oddly truncated, covering about the next four years in her burgeoning career, making the reader suspect that the Sadler’s Wells series may be about to move on with new characters.
Yet none of this really explains why the series of fourteen Sadler’s Wells books written by Lorna Hill have been reprinted so many times over the years, with more contemporary covers and artwork. Nor does it explain why they seem to be of wider interest than just to balletomanes.
After rereading the first two, several things become evident. We may be in the world of ballet, but this is no heavily romanticised fairytale world. It is not a world full of glitter and pink tutus, but a world where the exhausted dancers have sore feet, and spend their spare time mending their leotards and shoes. They are real people in the real world, and although the final end ballet is undeniably romantic, the way there is dauntingly hard. Neither are the dancing schools full of precocious brats, who want for nothing, and have spent their lives so far delighting their mothers with displays of tap, ballroom, and other sorts of dance. There are some of those to be sure, but there are many others. Several of the talented students at the school see dancing as the only way to escape poverty and a humdrum life of drudgery. Then there are those who are showy, skilful dancers who lack artistic integrity, but have the ambition and drive to succeed. There are also the truly talented, whose technique is good, and sensitivity is excellent, but who are destined to spend their career in the corps de ballet, because they have not the necessary confidence to push themselves forward.
In fact, what we are shown is a cross-section of society. All human life is here, and we are not to know who will get that lucky break, and whether we will feel they deserve it. Only a very few will have what it takes to be successful, and through talent, hard work and determination succeed to the coveted position of prima ballerina for Sadler’s Wells ballet. As a consequence, they will then inevitably dedicate their entire life to dancing, for only then do they truly come alive. It makes for compelling reading.
This, then, is the crux. Forget today’s ideas of celebrity status conferred as a kind of fluke. Here we have reward for hard work and determination – and what a reward it proves to be. Lorna Hill makes it quite clear that the creative arts of dancing, or music, or painting, or writing are the most satisfying thing one could ever do with one’s life. But she also hammers home the point that it doesn’t just happen by accident. It has to be earned, and her characters have to work for it with dedication, even sometimes to obsession, if they want to succeed at the creative life.
Yet it never seems to be a pipe dream, an unattainable object, but always seems possible, if someone has the talent, and works hard enough. It won’t appear by magic out of the blue, but needs to be planned for, gone without things for, worked as hard as you could for, sweated out your guts every day for. Just having the talent, and a graceful sensitivity would not be enough.
It’s a laudable approach to life, for anyone who is inclined to devote their life to Art. But there is something else about these books too. In many ways, they have a forward-looking feminist approach.
Take the part where Sebastian Scott
Now, this sort of attitude would make an average 21st century female indignant, at the very least. But this was published in the 1950s, and Sebastian was only expressing what was a commonplace view at the time. Did Veronica agree?
No, she most certainly did not. They had a blazing row and she went off to London, for her own role, not doubting her own conviction for a moment. She knew absolutely that that her own career was just as important as his. Yes, she was miserable, to not be able to support him, but also she was unhappy that he did not seem to understand her dilemma, or that she could not sacrifice her big chance to watch his performance.
So, to itemise these concerns, we have the creative life as one to be desired, rather than a life devoted to making money, or getting ahead socially. We have clear indications of the enormous satisfaction of success to be achieved, based on hard work. We also have the idea, a little subversive for the time, that it is justifiable for a young woman to put her own aims and ambitions in life, above those of the young man she is involved with. By the end of the book, she has matured enough not only to realise that Sebastian will never apologise to her, but to put it aside and understand what his gesture means.
In fact I have noticed that some books for girls in the post war years, reflected a strong, independent spirit in their characters, which may come as a surprise to modern readers.They now seem quite progressive, often stressing academic, individual or artistic achievement over previous ideas of homemaking. Careers and self-development had become something girls were encouraged to reflect on.
The overriding concerns of previous decades girls’ heroines, were loyalty to their friends or school, and disdaining anything that felt dishonourable to their country. Veronica never thinks about such notions, complaining bitterly that the only books her cousins possess are this sort of story. This is not to say that Veronica does not have her own principles. When she is targeted for some unpleasant and subversive tricks, making her miss an important audition, it never occurs to her to tell on the perpetrator,
A casual reader might assume that ballet books from this era are elitist, and perhaps exploitative. Perhaps though assumptions like this are just as erroneous. This series is far more about individualism, developing one’s talents and seeking one’s own path.
In a way the book is both similar and vastly different from “The Red Shoes. It is tempting to wonder whether, writing just a few years later, Lorna Hill was making a deliberate statement; whether she was responding to Powell and Pressburger’s film, by making Veronica’s choices the bold and brave ones she hoped a modern young woman would make.
The ending to these books may feel satisfying, and have a “dream come true” quality, but a lot of hard work, pain and toil have contributed to that fairytale ending.
December 27, 2017
Intimate and warmly written, this sequel to 'A Dream of Sadlers Wells' covers the next three years of Veronica's life after she returns to London. By now, she has become an old friend to the reader and many of the characters from the first book return to add humour, texture and variety to the plot. Once again, Lorna Hill immerses the reader in the tension and emotion of the highly competitive world of the Sadlers Wells Ballet and its feeder school (no mean feat, as she never trained as a dancer herself but received all the information through her daughter, who was a pupil there) before allowing her own familiar Northumberland to take centre stage. Ponies and riding - those other Girls Own staples besides ballet and boarding school stories - receive plenty of attention once again as the book incorporates elements of the fairy tale to add to its predictable, but nevertheless satisfying, ending. Wonderfully nostalgic.
March 30, 2017
I could write an essay about ballet books, but it isn't in me today. So I will just say that the constant stream of compliments - overheard and (gasp) to Veronica's face - are the most ridiculous thing. (Jonathan is a ridiculous character, but not as ridiculous as those compliments! That's how bad they are.) The most annoying thing is Sebastian showing up when she's about to become famous and Veronica BEING HAPPY HE FORGAVE HER. HE NEVER APOLOGIZES. In some ways, Sebastian's the perfect cynical counterpoint to Veronica's trusting naivete. In other ways, he is the most obnoxious person alive.
There's a ballet teacher in a Drina book who says she wishes someone would write a book about a girl who worked really hard and failed. That's how I feel when I finish this.
There's a ballet teacher in a Drina book who says she wishes someone would write a book about a girl who worked really hard and failed. That's how I feel when I finish this.
November 19, 2021
Bon la quatrième étoile c'est de la pure nostalgie hein. Mais quand même.
December 12, 2011
This isn't one of my top favourites, but I have to give it 5 stars because it belongs to a 5-star series. These books taught me why people liked classical music, introduced the enchanting notion that girls didn't have to stay in the environment where they had been born, and made it clear that if even the most wonderful man in the world wanted you to give up your essential being, you had to leave him. He'd come round a few years later - or he wasn't worth having.
All this laced with fun and glamour.
'I always think the kitchen is the nicest room in the house - especially if it is a big cournty house. The kitchen at Bracken Hall was lovely; it had a red tiled floor, and an oak dresser with masses of deep blue willow-pattern china upon it. There was a long table, scrubbed to gleaming whiteness with silver san, and a deep window-seat with red-and-white gingham cushions on it. Fiona didn't stay long, though. I think she imagined that sitting in the kitchen lowered her dignity!'
All this laced with fun and glamour.
'I always think the kitchen is the nicest room in the house - especially if it is a big cournty house. The kitchen at Bracken Hall was lovely; it had a red tiled floor, and an oak dresser with masses of deep blue willow-pattern china upon it. There was a long table, scrubbed to gleaming whiteness with silver san, and a deep window-seat with red-and-white gingham cushions on it. Fiona didn't stay long, though. I think she imagined that sitting in the kitchen lowered her dignity!'
March 23, 2009
Parts of this book were detailed, day by day accounts of Veronica's life (e.g. when she's on holidays in Northumberland), and other parts, which I would have thought more important, such as her gaining success and fame with her ballet, were glossed over, with two years compounded into just one chapter. I wanted more about the ballet! I didn't care whether she went horse riding with Sebastian or not - which brings me to another point: I liked Sebastian in the first book, and found him amusing, but by this book I was rather sick of all his sarcastically witty comments, and wanted to give him a kick! And he doesn't speak to Veronica for two years, then turns up at a ballet performance and has the gall to kiss her and expect everything to be fine? Tsh...
August 25, 2015
Še nadaljevanje. Veronika začne obiskovati plesno šolo njenih sanj in ta knjiga opisuje njeno pot do uspeha. Kot prvi del se mi zdi tudi ta zelo prepričljivo napisana, me je pa zelo zmotilo, da je večina knjige posvečena običajnemu obiskovanju ur, drobnim dogodkom, nepovezanim s plesom ... potem, ko pa Veronika končno uspe, je ta velikanski uspeh popisan morda na dveh straneh, v nekaj stavkih, zaradi katerih se zdi manj pomemben, kot je v resnici. Se je avtorici zdelo, da je knjiga že predolga in da jo je treba kmalu končati? Ne vem. Verjetno je to tako z razlogom, ampak meni ni všeč. Pa pogrešam Sebastijana v tej knjigi, ker je zato bistveno manj zabavna kot prva. Všeč pa mi je Jonatan (že od prej, a v tej knjigi še posebej).
June 29, 2016
I really enjoyed this book but not quite as much as the first one.
Veronica is finally realising her dream of studying at Sadler's Wells but being a new arrival has it's disadvantages. Especially when one girl makes things difficult. I liked the way you saw how she struggled to adapt at first to studying at a tougher school and how her relationship with her cousins developed.
I perfect read as I had lots of work related stuff going on.
Veronica is finally realising her dream of studying at Sadler's Wells but being a new arrival has it's disadvantages. Especially when one girl makes things difficult. I liked the way you saw how she struggled to adapt at first to studying at a tougher school and how her relationship with her cousins developed.
I perfect read as I had lots of work related stuff going on.
October 7, 2021
This was the first book in the series which I read (as a child) and used to be my favourite. Re-reading the series, I found to my surprise that I actually slightly preferred the first book - perhaps the green, rural setting was blissfully idyllic to this city dweller! But, as a child, I loved how this book focused on the dirty sparkle of London life and the sweat and glitter of the ballet world, and I still very much enjoyed it upon a re-read.
** Spoiler Alert **
Although, as I explained in my review of the previous book, I don't generally find Sebastian annoying (until the later books, at least), there are moments here where he is a bit insufferable - but I think it's realistic, he's a teenage boy, a precious only child who has been allowed his own way far too much, he lost his mother presumably while a small child and has only his rather hands-off father to parent him, and now he's fallen in love but it doesn't seem to be going his way. Even the things he says to Veronica about her career, I think he doesn't mean in his heart of hearts - I think he's furious, deeply upset, impassioned.
In contrast, I think Jonathan does mean what he says about how girls shouldn't taken up the stage as a career, and I find his constant interferences with Stella's career officious, although it's true that ultimately the stage turns out not to be the right place for her. While Sebastian mostly doesn't annoy me, I have to say that Jonathan does. He's rather interfering and patronising, to my mind, and the whole thing about pretending to be a poor artist (while really being a wealthy member of the gentry) and having cut himself off from his father for reasons that are never really justified made me like him even less. I think part of the problem is that the author clearly really liked him herself, and keeps telling us (through Veronica) how kind and perfect a man Jonathan is - nothing puts me off characters more than the author telling us we should like them!
Most of this novel is very well told and well paced, and you can see why the characters do what they do. I appreciate the "show rather than describe" approach Lorna Hill takes in these early books, and I think it's why her portrayal of Sebastian and the relationship between him and Veronica is intriguing and believable. It works especially well because Veronica, as a character, does not seem to understand herself fully, nor to understand romance in her own life or the lives of others, so you see everything through her rather puzzled eyes - her gaze fixed intently on the ballet stage!
These first two books, I think, as Lorna Hill at her finest, and I really enjoyed re-reading them :)
** Spoiler Alert **
Although, as I explained in my review of the previous book, I don't generally find Sebastian annoying (until the later books, at least), there are moments here where he is a bit insufferable - but I think it's realistic, he's a teenage boy, a precious only child who has been allowed his own way far too much, he lost his mother presumably while a small child and has only his rather hands-off father to parent him, and now he's fallen in love but it doesn't seem to be going his way. Even the things he says to Veronica about her career, I think he doesn't mean in his heart of hearts - I think he's furious, deeply upset, impassioned.
In contrast, I think Jonathan does mean what he says about how girls shouldn't taken up the stage as a career, and I find his constant interferences with Stella's career officious, although it's true that ultimately the stage turns out not to be the right place for her. While Sebastian mostly doesn't annoy me, I have to say that Jonathan does. He's rather interfering and patronising, to my mind, and the whole thing about pretending to be a poor artist (while really being a wealthy member of the gentry) and having cut himself off from his father for reasons that are never really justified made me like him even less. I think part of the problem is that the author clearly really liked him herself, and keeps telling us (through Veronica) how kind and perfect a man Jonathan is - nothing puts me off characters more than the author telling us we should like them!
Most of this novel is very well told and well paced, and you can see why the characters do what they do. I appreciate the "show rather than describe" approach Lorna Hill takes in these early books, and I think it's why her portrayal of Sebastian and the relationship between him and Veronica is intriguing and believable. It works especially well because Veronica, as a character, does not seem to understand herself fully, nor to understand romance in her own life or the lives of others, so you see everything through her rather puzzled eyes - her gaze fixed intently on the ballet stage!
These first two books, I think, as Lorna Hill at her finest, and I really enjoyed re-reading them :)
January 18, 2008
Veronica berhasil memasuki Sadler Wells. Disini dia menghadapi tantangan untuk bisa survive di London seorang diri, karena dia sudah tidak mempunyai keluarga lagi. Dia kembali ke apartemen lamanya dan disambut baik oleh Mrs. Crapper, pemilik apartemen.
Untuk menjadi penari utama di Sadler Wells bukan hal yang mudah. Saingan sangat banyak dan tidak segan-segan saling menjatuhkan. Pertama-tama tentu saja Veronica hanya mendapat peran-peran kecil. Salah sorang teman Veronica mengibaratkan para ballerina di Wells seperti sekumpulan laron. Dimana awalnya sangat banyak, namun lama-lama hanya akan ada sedikit laron yang bertahan. Itulah yang akan menjadi ballerina terkenal.
Buku ini menceritakan perjalanan Veronica selama di Wells. Lika likunya untuk menjadi penari utama, sampai masalah hubungannya dengan Sebastian.
Untuk menjadi penari utama di Sadler Wells bukan hal yang mudah. Saingan sangat banyak dan tidak segan-segan saling menjatuhkan. Pertama-tama tentu saja Veronica hanya mendapat peran-peran kecil. Salah sorang teman Veronica mengibaratkan para ballerina di Wells seperti sekumpulan laron. Dimana awalnya sangat banyak, namun lama-lama hanya akan ada sedikit laron yang bertahan. Itulah yang akan menjadi ballerina terkenal.
Buku ini menceritakan perjalanan Veronica selama di Wells. Lika likunya untuk menjadi penari utama, sampai masalah hubungannya dengan Sebastian.
January 3, 2011
sebelum ke radal, ngider2 bms sebentar sambil nungguin ijul n aini, eh dapet buku ini ma yg No Castanets at the Wells ^_^
-------------------------------------------
buku ptama di 2011..
ulang baca, dulu pernah baca, tp udah lupa ceritanya..
ini cerita sekolah balet sadler well's
ada banyak serinya, tapi kata mba iyut gramedia cuma nerbitin 1-4..
di buku pertama dan kedua tokoh utamanya veronica..
kalo buku pertama cerita soal perjuangan veronica buat masuk ke sekolah well's, dibuku kedua ini cerita perjuangan veronica utk bisa tampil dan menjadi penari utama, tokoh menyebalkannya disini marcia, yg selalu berusaha nyabotase peluang2 teman2nya...
abis ini baru mo baca buku pertamanya.. kebalik nih bacanya, buku pertama baru nemu sih kemaren :p
-------------------------------------------
buku ptama di 2011..
ulang baca, dulu pernah baca, tp udah lupa ceritanya..
ini cerita sekolah balet sadler well's
ada banyak serinya, tapi kata mba iyut gramedia cuma nerbitin 1-4..
di buku pertama dan kedua tokoh utamanya veronica..
kalo buku pertama cerita soal perjuangan veronica buat masuk ke sekolah well's, dibuku kedua ini cerita perjuangan veronica utk bisa tampil dan menjadi penari utama, tokoh menyebalkannya disini marcia, yg selalu berusaha nyabotase peluang2 teman2nya...
abis ini baru mo baca buku pertamanya.. kebalik nih bacanya, buku pertama baru nemu sih kemaren :p
October 10, 2014
Having successfully combined ponies and ballet in the first of the Wells books, this time Lorna Hill chucked school into the mix as well. It's heady stuff - all the usual school story antics, with the twist that the classes are ballet classes, and in the holidays Veronica has exciting, pony-based adventures. It doesn't get much better than this.
I'm still not particularly enamoured of Sebastian, although in some respects a boyfriend who ignores you for two years is probably the best sort of man to have in your life. Veronica's transformation from student to ballet superstar is nicely done and all in all, it's frothy and yet still satisfying.
I'm still not particularly enamoured of Sebastian, although in some respects a boyfriend who ignores you for two years is probably the best sort of man to have in your life. Veronica's transformation from student to ballet superstar is nicely done and all in all, it's frothy and yet still satisfying.
December 16, 2010
One of my favorite book as a child. I read it in french and didn't even know it was only the second of a series... I didn't even know there was more of them. I think there translated only 4 of them.
Anyway, the first book I read about ballet, and which fed my weird obsession about it.
Anyway, the first book I read about ballet, and which fed my weird obsession about it.
September 17, 2008
I read this when I was about BalletDaughter's age (11) and absolutely loved it! I wish I could find it for her!
February 25, 2011
Veronica studies at the Wells until she is given a part in a ballet. But her friend Sebastaian back home in Northumberland resents her success.
December 13, 2021
As the second instalment of the Sadlers wells series "Veronica at the Wells" beautifully develops the characters we came to love in "A Dream of Sadler's Wells". While Veronica's characteristic determination is everpresent, she has an added air of maturity about her. Instead of dreaming she is doing. Hill is careful not to glamourise the life of an aspiring ballet dancer but instead presents challenges to which Veronica must rise; unfriendly rivals, small pond syndrome, long painful hours. Her story promotes the view that there is nothing more fulfilling than a life in the creative arts, providing one is prepared to earn it. In turn, Hill condemns finishing schools and those who marry rich as Fiona intends to.
Sebastian also retains his boyish charm only now his serious side is much more established. In revealing his true ambitions he has made himself vulnerable yet he does not quite possess the same stubborn self-belief that Veronica does; the very person who inspired him to pursue his dreams. When Veronica prioritises her role over his concert not only is it a punch in the gut from his muse and the person he is in love with, it's a reminder that at this point she is more successful than he.
As her elder and a man, he feels emasculated by her rejection and falls on patriarchal values to defend his resentment. I don't think Sebastian really believes his career is more important than Veronica's but his intention to marry her puts even more pressure on him to be just as successful, and in that moment he would have said anything to wound her the same way she has him.
I think this interaction is the most important one in their story because while Veronica has matured she is still hopelessly naive in love. Two years isn't much but at 15 and 17, it's worlds apart; while Sebastian is self-assured in his affections, Veronica hasn't begun to articulate her feelings for him. The subsequent years where they are both pursuing their dreams are essential for both of their growth so that when they reunite at Covent Garden they are equals.
Sebastian also retains his boyish charm only now his serious side is much more established. In revealing his true ambitions he has made himself vulnerable yet he does not quite possess the same stubborn self-belief that Veronica does; the very person who inspired him to pursue his dreams. When Veronica prioritises her role over his concert not only is it a punch in the gut from his muse and the person he is in love with, it's a reminder that at this point she is more successful than he.
As her elder and a man, he feels emasculated by her rejection and falls on patriarchal values to defend his resentment. I don't think Sebastian really believes his career is more important than Veronica's but his intention to marry her puts even more pressure on him to be just as successful, and in that moment he would have said anything to wound her the same way she has him.
I think this interaction is the most important one in their story because while Veronica has matured she is still hopelessly naive in love. Two years isn't much but at 15 and 17, it's worlds apart; while Sebastian is self-assured in his affections, Veronica hasn't begun to articulate her feelings for him. The subsequent years where they are both pursuing their dreams are essential for both of their growth so that when they reunite at Covent Garden they are equals.
September 12, 2025
This well loved book ( by me) I have been reading and rereading since the 1970s. In this book Veronica is at the Sadlers Wells Ballet School (now the Royal Ballet School) but although she makes friends not everyone is her friend.
Back in Northumberland Veronica returns for Christmas break and they ride over to visit a friend who had left the Sadlers Wells school, and upon returning are caught in a blizzard.
Sebastian has written a symphony and it is due to be played on the Saturday evening after Christmas, however Veronica receives a telegram advising her of a chance to dance a role in the corps de ballet with the Company as others are out with flu etc. But to do so means missing Sebastian's concert. Surely he understands doesn't he? I mean they're both artists and both put it above private matters. He'll always support her, she knows that. But does he?
Back in Northumberland Veronica returns for Christmas break and they ride over to visit a friend who had left the Sadlers Wells school, and upon returning are caught in a blizzard.
Sebastian has written a symphony and it is due to be played on the Saturday evening after Christmas, however Veronica receives a telegram advising her of a chance to dance a role in the corps de ballet with the Company as others are out with flu etc. But to do so means missing Sebastian's concert. Surely he understands doesn't he? I mean they're both artists and both put it above private matters. He'll always support her, she knows that. But does he?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2023
My god. One of my favourite books of all time, not just because it's about ballet which I adore but I'm so completely invested in these characters' lives and Lorna Hill's eye for details is magical.
Veronica becomes a student of Sadler's Wells and lots of things happen. Impossible not to fall in love with Sebastian in this, and I adore Veronica so much, and the Christmas scenes, and Jonathan the artist with a mysterious background, and fragile Stella and Mrs Crapper and her nicest things.
Veronica is incredibly kind and you know straight away she's destined to be a star and you want the loveliest things to happen to her, and they do, they do!
This was published in the 50s and Veronica's life is quite the revolution too. Adored this so much, wow.
Veronica becomes a student of Sadler's Wells and lots of things happen. Impossible not to fall in love with Sebastian in this, and I adore Veronica so much, and the Christmas scenes, and Jonathan the artist with a mysterious background, and fragile Stella and Mrs Crapper and her nicest things.
Veronica is incredibly kind and you know straight away she's destined to be a star and you want the loveliest things to happen to her, and they do, they do!
This was published in the 50s and Veronica's life is quite the revolution too. Adored this so much, wow.
May 25, 2022
This is a lovely story. I really enjoyed the title character and her adventures. I did wish to see just a bit more of the about the actual routine and events in the ballet school. I enjoyed the excursion to Northumbria, but it felt too long, compared to what I had expected from the title. I was not as fond of Sebastian as Veronica was, either. Nonetheless, it was a fun and fascinating look into 1950s London and Sadler's wells.
March 19, 2017
Note: I read the American edition, which is entitled Veronica at Sadler's Wells. This is a long-time favorite, and continues the story of Veronica Weston, who we first met in A Dream of Sadler's Wells. So read that book first!
This book is full of well-realized characters, whom the reader will care for and root for (or against, in some cases). Highly recommended.
This book is full of well-realized characters, whom the reader will care for and root for (or against, in some cases). Highly recommended.
May 27, 2024
'"Once I told you, that you were the most beautiful girl in the world," he quietly continued. "Since then I met a lot of beautiful girls, but I still think that you are the most beautiful. Last time I intendet to kiss you - you remember? So I will kiss you now, but not as a goodbye, Veronika!"'
OMGGGGGGG
OMGGGGGGG
May 12, 2024
Still wondering why the fuck did they translated this book into Turkish as "sevimli balerin" and changed Veronica's name to İren Şarle like why? I didn't even know it belonged to a series until I checked the author YEARS LATER.
July 22, 2024
i don’t think i would’ve forgiven him but hey that’s romance
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2024
I love the details about the ballet school and career
November 23, 2024
Veronica living her dream. It was a very quick read.
June 5, 2022
Covid Comfort Read #2
December 29, 2024
This book makes my heart sing and takes me to a new place I call home.
-06.07.2021
Umm, this is amazingly good, fav kids book for ever. Nothing tops this.
-28.12.2021
<333
15.02.2023
cried through the entirety of the epilogue. i’m fine with not being a ballerina bc veronica did it for me!
xoxo
25/12/23
Sebastian.
29/12/24
-06.07.2021
Umm, this is amazingly good, fav kids book for ever. Nothing tops this.
-28.12.2021
<333
15.02.2023
cried through the entirety of the epilogue. i’m fine with not being a ballerina bc veronica did it for me!
xoxo
25/12/23
Sebastian.
29/12/24
November 22, 2024
Still very enjoyable nearly 60 years after I first read it. Veronica goes to the famous Sadler’s Wells ballet school in pursuit of her dream of becoming a ballerina. Her life in London, the training at the ballet school and her relationship with her almost cousin Sebastian make a gripping story that still holds up well today as a period piece.
January 4, 2023
So cozy, comforting and lovely. A must read!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews