The Whicharts

by Noel Streatfeild

She never doubted for one moment that once she had the necessary training she would find the work. She knew with her whole being that she was a born mechanic. In what way she would have a chance to prove this she didn’t know, but her prayers always finished: “And oh God, if possible, let me fly".

1920s London: three adopted sisters train for the stage and support the household.

Maimie, Tania and Daisy Whichart have self-reliance thrust upon them. The Whicharts is the story of their dreams, friendships and loves. The drudgery of stage-work is set against their passion for family ties and realising their dreams.

Out of print since the 1930s, Noel Streatfeild's rare first novel is an exuberant portrayal of London cultural life in the inter-war years.

Streatfeild used parts of this first novel to develop the classic 'Ballet Shoes'.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, British Literature, Historical Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

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

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most important thing to know about this 1931 novel (Noel Streatfeild's first published book) is that it is Ballet Shoes for adults. This story of three disparate sisters struggling to create careers for themselves on the stage in 1930's London was not a particularly successful debut for Streatfeild; on publication, it faded into obscurity almost at once. Five years later, when she rewrote it as a children's book, the story was a huge hit and has never been out of print. As a longtime fan of Streatfeild (and having a weakness for stories of sisters three, being one of three sisters myself) I'd been on the lookout for this book for over a decade, without much hope of ever finding it for a reasonable price. Happily though, for anyone sharing my curiosity about this literary oddity, it has recently been privately reprinted in an attractive paperback edition.

I had been assured by many friends who share my fondness for old children's books that The Whicharts is utterly depressing, so approached it with some trepidation. This probably worked in my favor. Had I been expecting something just as cheerful as Ballet Shoes I would undoubtedly have been dismayed by the starkly realistic tone, but as it was I found myself thinking that it wasn't as grim as all that, and I enjoyed it for what it was -- a story that has some moments of being over the top in its melodrama, but is on the whole compulsively readable. The strongest impression I had was that the initial premise here is so much more believable than that of Ballet Shoes. In Ballet Shoes, an eccentric world-traveling fossil hunter rather improbably keeps bringing home stray babies for his niece to raise. In the Whicharts, the sisters all share the same father, a compulsive philanderer who selfishly dumps three successive out-of-wedlock daughters on a kind but long-suffering ex-mistress who still loves the cad and will do anything for him. The title comes from the phrase "Our father, whichart in Heaven" (the sisters, as small children, are told their father died in the Great War) and later the girls take on Whichart as a surname for themselves, much as the sisters in Ballet Shoes call themselves Fossil. It's also rather more believable that the dancing school the Whichart girls attend as charity students is a rather tawdry establishment, not the world-class ballet academy of Ballet Shoes. What is the same in the two books is the interest provided by the behind the scenes look at the dancing and theater world, and the character of the middle sister, who in this book is called Tania, who hates the stage, but sees no other way of earning money so that she can realize her dream of becoming an auto mechanic. This book is really Tania's story -- she dominates it far more that Petrova, her Ballet Shoes equivalent, does that book, and she is quite a likable character.

People seem to have greatly mixed feelings about The Whicharts, and some fans of Ballet Shoes have felt that this version of the story has tainted their enjoyment of the later book. I will have to reread Ballet Shoes myself to see if that proves to be the case for me. I suspect it may seem sugary and unrealistic by comparison, yet I can't imagine not feeling as fond of it as ever.

[Jo Walton]

WTF?

This is the non-PG version of Ballet Shoes. So there's a guardian and a nannie and three children living in a house in London, and a theatrical school, and dancing, and stage-work, and the middle sister loves engines. But... the guardian was the mistress of the father of all three girls, though they all had different mothers who were all later mistresses, and the oldest sister becomes a tart. It's not that these things shock me in normal books, but they feel very odd indeed here, in what is like a dark shadow of Ballet Shoes. Terrible things happen. I don't mean the sex, genuinely terrible things, death and children being unhappy every day.

I want to say don't read this if you love Ballet Shoes, but unless you love Ballet Shoes you'd have very little interest in reading it in the first place.

And she wrote it first, so... that's really undermining her origin story.

Well, that was certainly a surprise.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third reissued adult novel by Noel Streatfeild that I've read. The Whicharts was her debut novel, published in 1931, and is much weaker than the other two I've read. But it has a fascination for me because she later reshaped it to create her most famous children's book, Ballet Shoes, which I reread endlessly and still remember very well.

The opening paragraphs are almost identical in both books, and the set-up is very similar - three young girls growing up with a guardian in London, who start dancing to support the family. However, while the girls in Ballet Shoes are orphans collected by a fossil hunter, the three girls in The Whicharts really are half-sisters. Maimie, Tania and Daisy are the daughters of a charming philanderer, a Brigadier, who dumps each of them in turn on his ex-mistress Rose. They are told that their father has died, and therefore choose their surname Whichart (Our father which art in heaven).

The earlier book doesn't have the charm or the rich layers of detail of Ballet Shoes, and the characters aren't so well drawn. But this adult version of the story is more realistic, showing the squalor of the second-rate classes and down-at-heel theatrical settings where the girls find themselves. It's very interesting to see what the reality would have been like, in contrast to the grand Academy in Ballet Shoes.

The affection between the sisters is there in this book, but they are very different from one another. Maimie is a much seedier version of Pauline, relying on her sex appeal to find a succession of men to pay her bills. Tania and Daisy are closer to their later incarnations as Petrova and Pauline, with Tania as the central character and more space given to her passion for cars and aeroplanes.

The working-class characters' dialogue is mainly rendered in Cockney dialect, which would probably work better if listening to an audiobook. There are also suggestions of anti-Semitism in the portrayal of a couple of Jewish boyfriends of Maimie's - this is an element which I also remember from one passage in Streatfeild's second novel, Parson's Nine, as is sadly the case in many 1930s novels.

Looking at other reviews, some readers say that reading this has ruined Ballet Shoes for them, but I don't feel that at all -I found it very interesting to compare this earlier and darker version. I'll have to reread Ballet Shoes before too long!

[Girl with her Head in a Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my full review: https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...

This book is a true literary oddity. Published in 1931 as an adult novel, its author was advised to redraft it into a format suitable for children. Streatfeild did so and the result was Ballet Shoes which became a classic and has never been out of print. Very much the Go Set A Watchman to Shoes' To Kill A Mockingbird, the original The Whicharts faded into oblivion. Until it recently resurfaced in ebook form, I had accepted that I would never find a copy given how impossible it was to track down even second-hand copies. I was not even sure that I was missing anything given that multiple commentators had claimed that The Whicharts was enough to spoil anyone's enjoyment of Ballet Shoes. Still, there can be few people who do sit down to read a book as forgotten as Whicharts without a pre-existing interest in Ballet Shoes. In the end, my curiousity got the better of me. This is Streatfeild with the sordid bits left in.

Streatfeild's Shoes books were a big part of my childhood. From White Boots to Curtain Up (now Skating Shoes and Theatre Shoes respectively), I read every one that I could lay my hands on. I probably read Ballet Shoes around twenty times and can still remember large tracts of it verbatim. This of course makes The Whicharts a rather strange read given how many passages were transplanted straight into its successor. Maimie, Tania and Daisy are the three illegitimate children of the Brigadier, handed off to be brought up by Rose, his original discarded mistress. Rather different to the distant great-uncle figure who collected up stray babies while out hunting for fossils.

The basic premise of the novel is the same. Three sisters living in straitened circumstances on Cromwell Road with a rather anaemic guardian, eventually put on the stage in the hope that they will gain enough skills to make their living. Each of the Whichart girls is named after their unknown mother, with Rose insisting that each woman leave an inscribed Bible for their daughter before abandoning them to her care. With the Brigadier dying offstage, the children grow up only hearing about 'Our Father Which Art in Heaven' and so pick up their own last name from that just as their later Ballet Shoes counterparts pick Fossil.

Yet for all that they have in common, there is still a great deal which marks them as different. The Whicharts is a grimmer and grubbier story and has little of the other book's warmth. For all that the Fossil sisters were siblings only 'by accident' and the Whicharts all have a father in common, the children without the blood ties seemed more tightly bound together than the girls do here. Maimie, Tania and Daisy may be true half-sisters but aside from Tania, they have little loyalty towards each other. The dancing school which they attend is a cheap one rather than the world class Madame Fidolia's Academy. Their careers do not take off in the way that the Fossil sisters do. They learn none of the character-building lessons and Ballet Shoes' Cinderella glamour is conspicuously absent.

The later book focuses closely on three young girls making their way on the stage. This does not seem to be the point of The Whicharts. While each sister has roughly equal billing in Ballet Shoes, in this earlier version the focus is far more on Tania, the prototype for Petrova. As with Petrova, Tania does not take well to the dancing lessons or to the stage work which comes later. She longs to be an engineer and for a secure family unit. The whole Whichart set-up always feels fragile, right from the beginning when the Brigadier abandons Rose without warning. There is always the possibility of betrayal. Forever forlorn following her heartbreak, Rose is a more emotionally remote figure for the children than Shoes' Garnie. Even though the girls' nanny is the same as all the other nannies within the Streatfeild oeuvre, she still does not feel like someone Tania can rely upon. Maimie discovers boys at an early age and becomes a tart, living off the favours of her various rich boyfriends while Daisy is snatched up again by her long-lost maternal grandparents. Tania is left alone.

The Whicharts is not a terribly likeable book. There are hints of anti-Semitism in how Streatfeild describes various of Maimie's married boyfriends. Maimie's shameless manipulation of men for money felt jarring yet when Rose attempts to remonstrate with her, Maimie points out that she was put on the stage at the age of twelve to earn her living and it is too late to wrap her up in cotton wool now. Our post-Weinstein post-#MeToo world has underlined the casting couch culture which often accompanies acting work and it is unlikely to have been different in the 1920s and 30s. While Streatfeild may depict the stage with less of the sparkle than in her later work, one suspects that we see it here with greater realism. Rather than becoming a celebrated actress and film star, is it more realistic that Pauline Fossil never made it past the chorus and took up with gentlemen admirers instead to pay the bills?

Yet, the next time that I pick up Ballet Shoes, will the memory of the Whichart girls affect how I read it? To be honest, probably not. The Whicharts is not a must-read even for the avid Streatfeild fan such as myself. Its narrative arc is weaker, its character development less coherent. The reader never develops much of an attachment to the Whichart girls and none of them ever feel fully three-dimensional. While it had its moments of interest, it is an undeniably less compelling book. At some point after writing Whicharts, Streatfeild decided to ditch the seediness and switch to sugar and from there, the Shoes books which made her name. Reading The Whicharts showed me that it was exactly as advertised - an unpolished debut novel.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Noel Streatfeild’s first children’s book Ballet Shoes , a book that was re-read more times than I can recall throughout my childhood, so when I realised that this book was actually based on the author’s first attempt at an adult novel, The Whicharts, I knew I had to read this. Then as is so often the way it sat hidden away on my bookshelf, unopened, until now.

Reading The Whicharts is an odd experience with echoes of Ballet Shoes never far away and so it became a little like a game of spot the difference, with only my memory to depend upon. In The Whicharts we have a darker and seedier elder sister to the more uplifting Ballet Shoes, where childhood dreams can come true given enough grit and determination and as long as you remain loyal to those who love you.

Indeed both books start almost identically with the author clearly taking the earlier novel and superimposing the details for what would become a commended runner up for the Carnegie Medal on publication in 1936
The Whicharts
The Whichart children lived in the Cromwell Road. At that end of it which is furthest from the Brompton Road, and yet sufficiently near it to be taken to look at the dolls’ houses in the Victoria and Albert every wet day, and if not too wet expected to “save the penny and walk”.

Saving the penny and walking was a great feature of their childhood.

“Our Father,” Maimie the eldest would say, “must have been a definitely taxi person; he couldn’t have known about walking, or he’d never have bought a house at the far end of the longest road in London.”
Ballet Shoes
The Fossil sisters lived in the Cromwell Road. At that end of it which is furthest away from the Brompton Road, and yet sufficiently near it to be taken to look at the dolls’ houses in the Victoria and Albert every wet day, and if not too wet expected to “save the penny and walk”.

Saving the penny and walking was a great feature of their childhood.

“Gum,” Pauline, the eldest would say, “must have been a very taxi person; he couldn’t have ever thought about walking or he’d never have bought a house at the far end of the longest road in London.”

For anyone who hasn’t read Ballet Shoes the story is one of three girls who use their talents to support their family in a loyal bid to keep them all together when the money from their nominal guardian, Gum, runs out. The eldest girl, Pauline was an actress, Posy the youngest was a talented dancer and Petrova hates everything to do with the stage but still participates to earn her keep. There are moral tales inserted such as ‘not getting too big for your boots’ when Pauline loses out to her understudy because of her high and mighty ways. The book presents a career on the stage as exciting and rewarding for those who have a passion and through thick and thin the girls stick together. Basically all the ingredients to keep a young reader entertained!

The Fossils were mysterious finds of Gum (Great Uncle Matthew), who were placed with his niece, the Whicharts are the more grubby illegitimate offspring of the Brigadier who dumps them on his long-discarded mistresses, Rose, who is ably assisted by Nannie and Cook. As the girls grow up a little and money is becoming shorter Nannie decides it is time for the girls to go to school, they will take in boarders to pay the fees and keep the household afloat. There is just one problem what name to use to enrol them with. In the end it is the middle sister, Tania who decides:

“By our Farver’s name in course.”
Rose was puzzled.
“What name darling?”
“Whichart in course.”
Rose must have looked hopelessly fogged, because Maimie said kindly as one helping an imbecile:
“Our Father Whichart.”

As in Ballet Shoes it is the youngest of the sisters, this time named Daisy, the daughter of a dancer from Balham, that has the talent for dancing. Her talent is spotted and encouraged by one of the boarders Violet, who introduces them to Madame Elise. And so it is that after some momentary pangs about the suitability of such a career, that all three attend the dancing academy which dusty and dirty. In this book I think we get a far more realistic idea of what life dancing for pantomimes and in dance troupes really would have been like for girls of tender years earning their keep in times of hardship. These details were no doubt the product of Noel’s own years on the stage prior to deciding to turn her hand to writing.

I really enjoyed the story, although at times what I loved and what I would hate in the hands of another writer were disconcertingly close. All the ‘lower-class’ characters drop their aitches which took me straight back to the books of my childhood, but also felt entirely out of place and patronising in an adult’s novel. The adult parts where the young Maimie, after an introduction into adult relations by a director, decides to uses her exquisite looks for money and favours, and sometimes out of sheer spite against another woman, was unexpected and not something that I expected to be inserted in such a blunt way in a book that was published in 1931.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of Ballet Shoes to hand, and nor have I read this for many years, but the characters of the girls right down to how the middle sister who has little talent for the stage longs to fly an aeroplane and would much rather help out as a mechanic than go near the stage appear to be more or less identical although nowhere near as glossy. It is this superficial characterisation which at times appear too trite for an adult novel, despite the fact that some of themes are definitely not childish.

The ending to this book is far less positive than that of Ballet Shoes, and whereas the children’s novel followed the three girls into adulthood, this stops short in a fairly depressing way where only one of the girls looking anywhere near likely to achieving their ‘happy-ever-after’ ending.

I’m so glad I have read this book although the pleasure was far more nostalgic rather than based on this rather unpolished debut adult novel. I do however fear it has tarnished my memory of Ballet Shoes forever although at the same time has added a layer of realism that has charms of its own.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of this book gave no clue as to its content; imagine then my surprise when I discovered it to be an adult version of Ballet Shoes with all the fun and detail removed. I for one am glad that someone recommended she rewrite it; as it stands, this book is superficial and dull. Nothing much about learning to dance (except that Tania hates it and Daisy is good at it); nothing much about the girls' growing up years, nothing much at all until the last quarter of the book. The pages seem to be full of Noel/Tania's stifled anger and resentment, just like the main character of A Vicarage Family: A Biography of Myself, and without which I can do very well. I have access to several of Streatfeild's adult novels, and I understand that this is the first book she wrote, but I am chary of wading through them if this is a sample.

A GR friend describes The Whicharts as "racy and seedy"; well, it would be if any detail at all was gone into about anything, which it never is. Oh, I didn't want the scabrous details of Mamie's sordid affairs or Dolly's attempts to interfere with Tania, but it's just another example of the superficiality of this poorly written book. I disliked all three girls until nearly the end, though I have to admit that Daisy is just a scribble, really. Later Streatfeild specialised in stories about girls who "gotta dance" and are really good at it; Daisy here is supposed to be so very gifted, and yet the height of her career seems to be dancing at a fete for Lady Somebody or Other. She doesn't even go off with the young lord who finds her so attractive! Streatfeild seems to have gotten tired of writing and just shuffled her away; and about time it looks like Tania might have some fun adventures--The End.
A star and a half.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: I love Noel Streatfeild and had never read an "adult" book by her. Knowing this was her first book was also tantalizing.

Streatfeild's first book is full of themes that she will go on to explore in many of her children's book over and over again. This is the first time this book has been in print since the 1930s and what a treat for it to be back in the light of day again. Set in the 1920s, this is the story of three adopted sisters who take to the stage to bring money into the household. One is a born natural, one is a born beauty and combined with her smattering of talent gets by, while the last has only enough talent to keep her in work but she dreams of the day she can become an automotive mechanic and even someday fly a plane. Simple enough plot that could easily be the base for a children's book, and one that Streatfeild would go back to when she wrote her famous Ballet Shoes.

However, this book is for adults and I would imagine was a little racy for the times it was written. The mistress of a womanizing wealthy man, Rose, is unceremoniously dumped one day as the scoundrel has fallen in love with another. She is left with the house, a staff of three and a per annum allowance. Then some time down the road later just when she is getting over the man he shows up at her door with a very pregnant woman and insists she takes care of her until she has the baby. The woman's abysmal attitude toward the impending baby endears Rose to it ever so much and in the end she adopts it and names it after the mother, Maimie. History repeats itself and Rose ends up as the adopted mother of three half-sisters all named after their mothers. Each one growing up to carry the traits of her mother, as well. Maimie, a girl about town, who has her way with men; Daisy, the natural born dancer and entertainer always full of joy; and finally Tania, who while having unique aspirations for a woman of the times also has an undying yearning to do whatever it takes to keep the family together and always have a "home".

A wonderful story of both the cultural and theatrical world of 1920s London. A story of family love and bonds, realizing ones dreams and the various ways a woman could go about keeping herself above the poverty line: toiling hard day and night at work she hates, exploiting a natural talent for easy money, or being looked after by men for favours in return. As Streatfeild's first book, it does show some. There is a lack of emotional attachment for the reader to the characters which is something she later developed to a fine art in her books. But nonetheless, a darling read and a must have for fans!

[The Library Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally most writers of children's fiction are not terribly good at writing adult fiction.
The unusual thing here is that Noel Streatfeild started off writing this book, and then turned it into one of the immortal works of children's literature,Ballet Shoes And while it's fascinating to see the skeleton of that book in this one, it's not a book that stands well on its own. Maisie, Tanya and Daisy are much less developed characters than Pauline, Petrova and Posy. Moreover, none of them is terribly likeable!
Interesting for Streatfeild fans, but not much more than that.

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you know, I might actually prefer this to Ballet Shoes! Petrova/Tania is so very much more central to the story and despite some of the write ups here, she gets the ending with all the potential, whereas in Ballet Shoes she’s very much pushed off to one side.

[Jessica Gilmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going to chock full of spoilers so look away if you haven't read it.

So, okay, obviously this is an older, darker version of Ballet Shoes. A more realistic version rather than a sordid version imo (and I say this as a great devotee of Ballet Shoes). It starts in exactly the same way and continues along similar lines but instead of great talent lovingly nurtured and a happy ending, Streatfeild delves into the 'what might have been' if Pauline, Petrova and Posy had grown up next door (although I think this came first which makes Ballet Shoes the what might have been, the glossier spin on the original).
Instead of Sylvia, the virginal spinster niece taking in her uncle's foundlings we have Rose, a faded Rose raising her lover's illegitimate offspring by other women. Each is named after and takes her mother. Maimie, headstrong, beautiful and self centred although with a charm and a love for her sisters to offset her wilfulness. Tania, hidden but deep emotions. Daisy, a dancer. Like the Fossils the money runs out as it does in Streatfeild novels, and as usual poverty isn't glamorous but worrying and tiresome. Boarders come in and one suggests training them for the stage and so off they go, not to Madame Fidolia's respectable Bloomsbury abode but to the eccentric Madame Elise. Daisy's potential is recognised but not as a future great artiste, as a star, Maimie's looks are shrewdly used and Tania gloomily works hard with a certain puckish charm of her own. Meanwhile Maimie dreams of money, Tania of airplanes and keeping her family together and Daisy just dances. When tragedy strikes and Rose dies, the girls find themselves torn in separate directions, Maimie to a string of lovers, Tania grimly earning money on the stage and dreaming of cars and Daisy to respectable suburbia, rediscovered by her grandparents. Tania feels like she's the only one who cares that their home is breaking up.
There are lovely echoes of Ballet Shoes throughout; Tania's inability to say a Shakespearean line, Nanny (of course), the knowledge of exactly what a shilling is worth, the walks to the V&A, Tania's dream of learning to be a mechanic. But this is a book in its own right and the Whitcharts are not the Fossils. Pauline, raised better and learning her lesson early would be horrified by Maimie, Posy too focussed on ballet to notice Daisy who is an all rounder although Petrova and Tania would find kindred spirits.
Does it end happily? Yes and no. Maimie loses the man she might have loved, but she doesn't waste time mourning - she enjoys money and men and having a good time. The war is round the corner and I suspect she would have had a good time and done her bit. Would she end up alone, counting her past triumphs or settled/fallen happily into marriage? All are as likely, but with Maimie you can be sure that she chooses her ending and does so with eyes wide open. Tania find her mother and she, who just wants a home, is dragged off to explore the world. But I have hopes that she too found a path to suit her in the war. As for Daisy, settled in Suburbia. I suspect she married young and looked back with amusement at her time as a child star. Who knows, it's left open but not downbeat. A fascinating look at the other side of child stardom in the world of the 1920/30 London stage.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scandalous! Romantic! Fabulous! Theatrical! A stunning debut! Ballet shoes from the first page! Though strictly come reading for adults. Entranced from the start. I'm hooked. I love books of the British, by the British (London, Nursery's, Cockney accent, class romance, snobbery, manners, 'pencil lead rain', the wartime spirit, tea time) The perfect Blighty book. To be read in a cozy fireside chair with a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday. Rule Streatfeild! Rule Britainia!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone as familiar with Ballet Shoes as I am, a bizarre book - definite case of auto-plaigerism as it follows that book with just enough twists and underlying adult themes (and yet such innocence, as it was written in the 1930s). Although to be fair I think this book was written before Ballet Shoes.

[Avril · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating as an early version of Ballet Shoes, but not particularly brilliant as a novel. Streatfeild was definitely a better writer for children than for adults.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weirdly adult version of Ballet Shoes, seedier & racier.

[Ophelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The grown-up version of Ballet Shoes! In this book, we still have three sisters (Maimie, Tania and Daisy) who a man (the Brigadier) has left with the women of his household (Rose and Nannie) and on the recommendation of a boarder go to a dancing-school (Madame Elise’s) where they discover the youngest has an incredible talent for ballet, whilst the middle hates it and yearns for cars and aeroplanes.

However, the details differ, drastically: Maimie, Tania and Daisy all have the same father, the Brigadier. Rose, rather than a niece, is an old, abandoned mistress who still loves him hopelessly and is willing to do anything for him, including taking on three baby girls. The boarder, Violet, still recommends them to Madame Elise’s upon seeing Daisy dance, but this time the academy isn’t the rather splendid affair of Ballet Shoes: it’s a bit old and shabby, and intended for the most part to churn out children to be chorus-girls in musicals or to perform in music-halls. It also, it seems, only intends to teach children to dance, and possibly sing — the only one who acts is Tania, and that’s just bit-parts in some Shakespeare, she’s hired to dance.

Some of the characters are much the same — Nana, for instance, is practically identical to Nannie (and indeed most of Streatfeild’s nurse characters!). Almost everything she says is used again or very similarly in Ballet Shoes. Rose, too, is almost exactly like Sylvia, despite her beginnings: the main way they differ is that Rose is a great deal more tired and ill. Tania is also much the same as Petrova, although she takes a much greater role in this book: it is really a book about Tania rather than a book about sisters. Maimie, however, is entirely different to Pauline, except in that she has golden curls, blue eyes and general good looks: she uses said looks to get money and favours from men, is rather unpleasant almost all the time, and has no especial talent. Daisy is difficult to speak for: she is really a bit part in this book, hardly ever even appearing on page and we never get into her head. She, of course, has a similar talent to dancing as Posy, but she isn’t anything as focussed on it — whilst ballet is what drives Posy, Daisy likes dancing but seems to view her talent mostly as a happy accident.

Taken on its own, this isn’t an especially good book. Nor is it particularly bad, of course, but one can see why it has been so unpopular. The writing is no-thing special and the characters a bit flat. The story, whilst a bit more realistic, especially when it comes to the backstory, is still a bit deus-ex-machina-y — it’s easy to tell why it was better as a children’s novel. That being said, for those of us who have known and loved the book (or at least me) it is a fun addition. Whilst it certainly shall never usurp Ballet Shoes’ place in my heart, it was an enjoyable read — almost like reading an earlier draft of it, really!

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rose is the discarded mistress of a dashing Brigadier who has proceeded to get his three subsequent mistresses pregnant, and in turn dumps their unwanted baby daughters on the long suffering Rose. Rose still loves the Brigadier so she takes care of his daughters, even after he is killed in World War One. And of course she has a devoted Nannie to help her. The name Whichart comes from confusion over the Lord’s Prayer, the little girls think ‘our Father which art in heaven” refers to their own deceased father. As there is a shortage of money, Rose takes in boarders, and one of them is a teacher at a dancing school. She thinks the three girls might be able to make a living on the stage, and the principle of the school is sufficiently impressed to take them on. Mamie,the oldest, is pretty and charming, so not being especially talented doesn’t matter. Tania, the middle girl, is dark and serious, with a passion for cars and aeroplanes, dancing bores her. Daisy, the youngest,is a really talented dancer who could be a star. If this all sounds a bit familiar, it is. A few years later, Noel Streatfield rewrote The Whicharts as a children’s story, Ballet Shoes. This earlier book is darker than Ballet Shoes, and the stage careers of the three girls are nothing like as glamorous as in the later book. But it has a lot of humour, and I found the girls interesting and their story quite absorbing. And - always the sign of a good book - I found myself wondering what happened to the three girls afterwards. Did Daisy continue with her stage career? Did Tania enjoy travelling? And whatever did Mamie get up to next?

[Tea73 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like I was reading Ballet Shoes as told by the cynic about what really happened. I read all of Streatfeild's children's books I could find as a child and in college read another adult book of hers - Parson's Nine which I liked very much and also her somewhat fictionalized autobiography. I can't remember which book has the character (obviously meant to be Noel) run off to be in a production in Australia because she had fallen in love with a married man. This book lacks that reticence. The three girls are all illegitimate and being brought up by the former mistress of "the Brigadier". The eldest Maimie (unlike Pauline) is not much of an actress and ends up being a professional mistress. Tania (aka Petrova) is more fleshed out. She ends up taking over the story. Daisy (Pauline) is much the same - she's the dancer, but when her family of origin turns up - she's intrigued and it seems the dancing may not be as important after all.
Much of the writing is clunky and there are a surprising number of sentences that lack verbs. The best bits she put in verbatim in the children's version. Despite the fact that as a novel it lacks a coherent plot, I still found it oddly compelling and not just for its uncanny resemblance to the later version.

[November Chilcott · Rating 4 out of 5]

when reading this book you can see how similar it is to Ballet Shoes—paragraphs from Ballet Shoes clearly lifted from The Whicharts. However while Ballet Shoes contained a sense of glitz, and the sisters had lives entwined with theatre and each other, The Whicharts was a far more grim, gritty story. It was enjoyable, but lacked the hope and love that makes Ballet Shoes such a classic. Tania, the middle child, is an incredible character yet she spends the entire book working hard at things which bring her no joy. All she wants is to live with her sisters and fly planes and no matter what she does, she can’t seem to get that. Maimie , unlike the talented Pauline, seems sad and unfulfilled by the end of the book; Daisy is living with grandparents who dote on her, and while Tania remarks they might never see her again, as a reader we get no insight into her, and I could not bring myself to care about her. The relationship between Maimie and Tania was compelling, yet I wished we could have seen more. The sudden ending of the book with none of the sisters seeming particularly satisfied, other than the sidelined Daisy, made me feel as though I was going to die of sadness.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd experience. So very similar to Ballet Shoes that it feels like reading an early draft, which it essentially is. And, having already read the later book, ultimately I don't feel the need to compare multiple versions of it, especially since they're unintentionally related (it's not as though the author set out to write 4 similar-but-different books as a suite, similar to Musical of Musicals: the Musical does for musicals ...)

So I've stopped, to read something a bit fresher and more surprising. It might have worked in the other direction: if I'd read this first, then moved on to see how it got polished up into the beloved classic—but in reverse chronological order, it palls.

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Jenna Freedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently reread Ballet Shoes for the zillionth time and somehow got into a Noel Streatfeild rabbit hole. I discovered that Ballet Shoes had an adult forerunner, The Whicharts. The Whicharts begins almost the same way as Ballet Shoes. There are a few differences, in that the three girls are half sisters of a womanizing brigadier. Pauline, named Maisie in The Whicharts basically becomes a professional mistress. This meh novel will be remarkable to the maybe none of you who are highly familiar with Ballet Shoes!

[Tassiemouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very readable and I fairly gulped it down. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would as I had heard it was a bit grim and grubby. And it is grubby and grim...at some points I just wanted to scream at the characters to watch out! A dark 1st adult version of Ballet Shoes, which leaves one unsatisfied somehow...

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't say I'm exactly glad to have read this, but it is interesting to see how Streatfeild repurposed the material to create BALLET SHOES. And, now that I'm over my shock, it is admirable and encouraging that she was able to create such an enduring and beloved (I've read it countless times) children's book out of a very weak adult debut.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first novel by Noel Streatfeild, author of the beloved "Shoes" series. It's an adult version of "Ballet Shoes," one of my family's favorite childhood books, and it's so strange to see the skeleton of the children's book in here. Must say it's not at all as good but it was a fascinating read. My sister read it too and we had a lot of fun discussing it.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sters, all illegitimate,

This is the sordid version of ballet shoes. Thtee half sisters, all illegitimate, are taken care of by one of their father's other mistresses, and grow up to be quite different young women.

[Sula · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reads like a early draft of Ballet Shoes, but aimed at for adults.

[Beth Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Noel Streatfeild's first book that later was mined for content for Ballet Shoes. I prefer the latter, but reading this adult and much more tawdry story was an interesting experience.

[Amnd · Rating 3 out of 5]

No tiene ni de lejos la Magia de Las Zapatillas de Ballet. No ya porque sea mas duro, pero le falta ese whimsicality

[Tammy Buchli · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I love Streatfeild’s children’s books and have read and reread them all many times since I found Ballet Shoes in the 3rd or 4th grade. I first heard of The Whicharts in middle school (early 1970s), which started what became a decades long search for this unicorn of a book. I looked for it in every library and used bookstore I came across (so many over the years!), and had no luck. It was among the very first things I searched for once the internet came along. Then I found a few copies - all of them $300 plus. Finally, 10 or so years ago, I found a copy in storage at some far-flung public library and was able to get it on inter-library loan.
And I hated it! I did a reread of Ballet Shoes first and I found The Whicharts to be so grim, so depressing, so dirty…. I couldn’t wait to mail it back.
But I’ve always suspected that part of the problem was that I read it back-to-back with Ballet Shoes, which is one of my all time favorite comfort books. Maybe that was unfair? So, when it became available as an ebook a couple of years ago I bought it. But I didn’t read it. There it sat on my Kindle waiting for me to feel equal to trying it again.
Yesterday, I’d had a little dental work done and thought I’d read a Streatfeild for comfort. Navigated to her section on my Kindle and decided - entirely on impulse - to give The Whicharts another try.
And I loved it! Divorced from my most recent reread of Ballet Shoes by several years, I was able to appreciate the grittier pastures of the earlier book. The book is dated (hoo-boy, the antisemitism!), and every single aspect of Ballet Shoes was twisted a bit darker, a bit grimier, a bit sadder. But this time I found myself able to let go of my love for the Ballet Shoes characters and find room in my heart to love their earlier iterations too. Well, except for the girls’ father - he was a big fat jerk!

[Carolyn Raship · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally got around to Nöel Streatfeild's first novel, The Whicharts. I'm glad I read it, but it's really only for the Streatfeild superfan - it's the adult book she rewrote a few years later which became Ballet Shoes. I'm enjoying it, but I understand why it wasn't successful. Talk of serial adultery and illegitimacy aside, it lacks the very grown up emotional acuity of her later books (both for adults and children).