Ten Way Street

by Susan Scarlett, Noel Streatfeild

“This is our new governess,” said Meggie. “She’s a nice sort of governess. She called us little horrors.” “And toads,” David chimed in. Betsy stood on one leg and held the other. “And she said we were smug and detestable little beasts.” Beverley Shaw, raised in an orphanage and trained to be a governess, gets her long-awaited first job working for Margot Cardew, a brilliant stage actress (and narcissistic diva), whose three precocious children are sadly used to being little more than their mother’s props. With advice from her friend Sarah, Beverley navigates between Margot’s exhausted secretary Winkle, her sleazy maid Marcelle, and the handsome Peter Crewdson, whom Margot loves but who is soon taking an interest in “Joan of Arc”, the spirited young governess he first meets giving the children a piece of her mind.

Ten Way Street is the fourth of twelve charming, page-turning romances published under the pseudonym “Susan Scarlett” by none other than beloved children’s author and novelist Noel Streatfeild. Out of print for decades, they were rediscovered by Greyladies Books in the early 2010s, and Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow are delighted now to make all twelve available to a wider audience.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, British Literature, Historical Fiction

205 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Pseudonym used by the English author Noel Streatfeild for publishing her romance novels.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had a little more Noel Streatfeild in it than the average Susan Scarlett except this time it's the mother (not the cousin or sister) who is the major diva. Our main character is Beverley Shaw, an orphan who was raised in a very nice sounding orphanage and has been trained as a teacher/governess. She becomes the governess to Mrs. Cardew's three children, Meggie, Betsy, and David and quickly realizes that they've had a lot to contend with in their young lives because of their mother's acting career and egotism. Beverley brings the stability and attentive care the children need, and I loved watching the kids transform from terrors to (relatively) normal, playful kids. Unfortunately, the diva actress Mrs. Cardew has a would-be paramour named Peter Crewdson who starts to notice Beverley... Shenanigans ensue.

This was a lot of fun! Beverley is a great leading lady. She is tough and brave and caring. She has a great sense of humor. I enjoyed her relationships with Winkle, Peter, and her school friend Sarah so much. I thought the relationship between Beverley and Peter had a bit more depth than the average Susan Scarlett. (Not that this matters too much in this genre, but it is still nice!) As my friend Christine aptly said, the ending is rather melodramatic but in a happily-ending way. I really did feel for both Beverley and the kids at the end, and I wasn't sure what a happy ending looked like. Susan Scarlett pulls off a good ending for all of them.

[Alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly different to the other Susan Scarletts I've read thus far, this one is about a governess who's an orphan.
So, no loving family in the background, no shopgirl learning the ropes, no miraculously being spirited away to enjoy the high life at the Savoy.
Instead, this one has slight Sound of Music vibes, as Beverley Shaw takes on three spoiled and difficult children who are at first determined to send her packing. Their mother is an actress who treats her children more like prize pets than humans, and Beverley has her work cut out for her to prod them toward anything like a normal childhood.
And then there's Peter. For reasons which are eventually explained, he's in London without much to do and is mostly at the beck and call of the actress... until he notices the plucky governess in the household.

The romance in this one was easy to spot a mile off, but it ended up being handled in kind of a lickety-split, suddenly-in-love kind of way which was a little jarring, and the end veers into slightly melodramatic territory.
That's okay, though, because as always Susan Scarlett is immensely readable and fun.

[Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vey enjoyable even if the second half descends into melodrama. Even our heroine Beverley almost becomes a different person as she frantically runs to her fiancé Peter after one of the children she is nanny to, disappears. During the first half of the book, she'd been such a do-it-herself stiff-upperlip girl, he'd nicknamed her Joan of Arc.

And as much as I wanted Peter and Beverley to get together--literally, he proposes on their first date! Apparently, they were having a romance and Beverley didn't even know it.

But the above did not detract from the comfortable world of this book which was so fun to spend time in. I also liked the study of Margot and a family situation where you have children who are being abused in an invisible way. They have all they need to eat, to wear, being much better off than the Elton children as far as material needs go. But the children lack so much given their narcissistic mother, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Sadly, I think this invisible abuse, via narcissistic parents, though rarely this extreme, is not infrequent. (I should mention that I "like" this study because the more such invisible abuse is brought to light, the more likely people may be to recognize it. And while there is nothing anyone could really do in this book to separate the children from their mother, Beverley does work wonders with the children, showing them much love and feeling love from them, and that's what makes the world of the book such a comfortable, enjoyable place to spend time.)

At the back of the Greyladies' version I read, there are descriptions of other Susan Scarlett books. Several looked interesting, particularly Summer Pudding and Clothes Pegs. Sadly, the cheapest copy of Clothes Pegs that I could find on line was around $160. So sad that the books by this author are become unavailable, which is a step to--in essence--being lost.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beverley Shaw has just left teacher training college, and obtains a job as governess to the children of famous actress Margot Cardew. Margot is a brilliant actress, but very wrapped up in her career. The children have every luxury, but Beverley is shocked by the strange life they lead, constantly whisked away from lessons for costume fittings and photo sessions, but seeing very little of their mother otherwise. Beverley tries to bring stability into their lives, and the children become fond of her. Unfortunately, Margot is very jealous, and her jealously leads to trouble. I found this story fairly enjoyable,but it becomes very melodramatic towards the end, and some things I found hard to swallow. The glimpses of the theatre world are, as always, very convincing.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those most Noel Streatfeild like of the Susan Scarlett books that I have read, as the young governess gets a job in a very theatrical house indeed.

[Karen (Living Unabridged) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susan Scarlett (pseudonym for Noel Streatfeild) writes "modern" fairy tales with a lot of wish fulfillment. (Unlikely coincidences and as many happy endings, however improbable, as she can squeeze in.)

This is no exception: three children who need a good nanny (Mary Poppins, anyone?) to set their lives straight while hijinks ensue and at least one couple falls in love.

The reason this particular tale didn't work for me is just how dreadful it is to be "parented" - I use the term loosely - by a narcissist such as the diva described in the story. Because of that personal knowledge, I could not suspend my disbelief to just sit back and enjoy the fairy tale and hastily drawn happy ending. But others may enjoy the look at "stage life" and celebrity between the wars (I'd say this was set in the late 1930s, but I could be off).

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Noel Streatfield/Susan Scarlett is increasingly a puzzle to me. She clearly was involved in the theatrical world and its related appendages, like fashion and beauty. Yet her heroines are always the ones who are naturally beautiful and elegant despite a ‘this old thing?’ approach to their clothes. There’s always one attractive, vapid, scheming antagonist whose signifiers of Badness rest in her interest in her appearance.

In this case, there’s the makings of a super interesting psychological family drama that Scarlett picks up, handles a bit, and then discards in favour of one of her trademark rushed happy endings. I get it; the women was writing in literal wartime and was aiming for the ultimate in comfort reading. There was never any doubt that Beverley would end up with Peter, but how she would extricate herself from her hard-won position as the main confidante of the children of a narcissistic famous mother was the real mystery of the story. And one that … doesn't get resolved? Beverley’s colleague Sarah is nearly finished up in one job so she steps in and everyone is kind of … yeah whatever? Even though these children are extremely warped and they’ve only just come to trust Beverley and Sarah and she aren’t interchangeable.

Peter is a typical hero of a Scarlett romance. He and Beverley’s meet-cute is initially sparky, and Beverley resents his repeated ‘saving’ of her from Margot. From one chapter to the next, however, she decides she likes both it and him. He’s a selfish and entitled manchild, however. It’s concerning that every single book talks about the adult, usually much older male romantic leave as a ‘cross child who hasn’t got his way’. I mean, it’s what they all are, and Scarlett makes clear that the woman’s role in this is to soothe and placate and find their own way around whatever obstacle he’s created.

‘“I’m sorry about Meggie, but I cannot see why our lives have got to be ruined for somebody else’s child.” “No, I know you can’t.” Beverley choked back a sob. “Meggie’s so pathetic. She’s in an awful state of nerves, and it’s taken the form of her not bearing me out of her sight. After all, a year isn’t long, and I’ll be waiting for you when you come back.’’’

Peter here is like, nope. The solution is entirely to fit in with Peter’s unnecessarily awkward plans, even though the heart of the story is actually Beverley’s success with the highly-strung Meggie. Oh well, as long as you get married, I suppose it doesn’t matter that she’ll get to spend the rest of her life breaking her back over the least of his whims.

Margot is an absolutely devilish character and I wish there’d been more development of this aspect of the book. She ends in a kind of no-mans-land of where she still has a steady governess for her children but does lose the man she thinks she loves, yet she never reappears after the final showdown with Beverley. A lot of latitude is given to the fact of her genius, which is not something female geniuses tend to receive, so props to Scarlett for that portrayal.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found out about these from Jo Walton, in her monthly columns for Tor.

Noel Streatfeild was one of my favorite authors when I was a kid: Ballet Shoes, Dancing Shoes, Skating Shoes etc. Susan Scarlett is a pen name she used for romances.

I tried this one because the theater aspect sounded a bit like Theater Shoes. Beverley, raised in an orphanage and trained to be a governess, gets her first job working for an affluent family. The mother is a famous stage actress but very diva; the three children look to be a handful as well.

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

I can't give this more than 2.5 to three stars. It started out being just what I wanted, a nice quiet eveningtime read with echoes of Essie Summers, but then it went weird. Scarlett (Streatfeild) didn't know if she was writing a ro-mance novel or a thriller or a theatre story or what. I know that governessing, like nursing, is often a vocation just as being a consecrated religious is a vocation, but even for 1941 (possibly written earlier) I found the attitude of "my duty to someone else's kids is much more important than anything else in my own life" far from believable. The "crisis" was ridiculous, and I skimmed from that point on. The MC's friend sounded like a much more interesting story than what we were actually given.
I expected better from Streatfeild, but that's probably why these were published under a pseudonym.

[Martyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending made me want to give it only two stars. Peter behaved in such a beastly manner that he didn't deserve to have Beverley marry him. It also felt like a very odd way for him to behave, out of a character, I would have thought, for him to adopt such a cold-hearted attitude towards both Beverley and the children, all of whom he cared about.

While the story content and the setting did feel more in keeping with a typical Streatfeild novel, I still feel that the style of writing is not hers. Once again the narrative was all very simply told. No weirdly constructed sentences. It just doesn't seem like her.

[Patrizia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Questi 'dodici romanzi' di Susan Scarlett sono un po' come delle caramelle che uno succhia distrattamente, facendo durare un po' la loro dolcezza, a compensazione delle varie amarezze della vita. Ma il cuore di questa particolare caramella si è rivelato insopportabilmente agro: si chiude sul ricatto finale di un uomo disposto a lasciare la donna che ama, perché lei non vuole rinunciare a compiere quello che crede sia il suo dovere.
Onestamente, erano altri tempi: ma erano i tempi in cui io stessa ero una ragazzina, e non avrei tollerato un discorso del genere neppure allora.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this worth reading, but it's not a solid 3 stars: it's 2.5 stars rounded up for some of it, and 3.5 stars rounded down for some.

I liked the main character and her friend, as well as some of the staff but her employer and the maid were both more cartoon villains than real people. It was hard to read about the children as they were not very likable, even after they settled down a bit.

I found the love story to be very predictable.

This is the second I have read by this author and I found Sally-Ann to be much better.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another quick, enjoyable Susan Scarlett (Noel Streatfeild), but I actually thought the male love interest was kind of a jerk. It was also disturbing to see how badly the children were treated by their narcissistic mother. So not my favorite of these recently reprinted 12 Susan Scarlett books. Thankfully, I still have 8 more left to read.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded up to 3.5 stars. A fun light read from the 1940s about a beautiful good orphan hired as a governess to the children of a famous high-strung actress. The day to day details are utterly authentic and make the story feel believable despite the thinness of the love interest piece. It gives the same pleasure now as reading BALLET SHOES, etc. did when I was a child--a rare gift.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ten Way Street has Scarlett's usual writing style, but many of the characters are unpleasant to be with and take up quite a lot of airtime. Save for the interaction of the two main characters and a minor, amusing incident in a theatrical play, this was more arduous and dramatic a read than other Susan Scarletts.

[Fanda Kutubuku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the premise is predictable, the story was woven skillfully, and the characters are perfectly drawn.
My (mini) review: https://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2025...

[Ed Limonov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential.

[L B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, but a bit Mills & Booney. Ending was abrupt, a common failing of the Susan Scarlett books.

[Little Red Readinghood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable light read reflecting the escapism need on the dark times it was written.

[P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy to get tired of this one.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story of an orphaned young woman turned governess in her first position within a very challenging household. Several reviewers have noted some “melodrama” near the end, but for me it was all in keeping with the way the author had drawn the characters. My favorite “Susan Scarlett” of the two I’ve read so far.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darker than the previous Susan Scarlett books I've read.

[Bookworman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another enjoyable read from Susan Scarlett aka Noel Streatfeild. A bit different from the other ones I've read by her but still entertaining and satisfying.