Noel Streatfeild author Part I

 Noel Streatfeild is famous as the author of numerous children's novels which are set in the world of the theatre and performance.  She was born in 1895 to a middle class family, in Sussex.  Her father was a clergyman who later became a bishop.  She was eager to have a career, since she was considered the plain daughter of the family and she was lucky enough to be born at a time when middle class girls were beginning to go to University and to earn their own livings.   She started out acting in charity shows, and decided to go on the stage herself. Her older sister Ruth was a nurse during World War One, which was one of the ways that middle class girls emancipated themselves in the Georgian era.   Ruth was also interested in the theatre and was a talented artist.  She worked as an illustrator and did the illustrations for some of Noel's books.  Noel joined an acting company, and trained as a professional actress.  It was just becoming a respectable profession for a young woman of genteel background but it was still rather unusual for a clergyman's daughter.  Dorothy Sayers, who was born around the same time as Noel and who was also a clergyman's daughter, was passionately fond of the theatre but became a playwright and novelist.