I haven't been able to get through this as I found Maddy the most obnoxious character. I read this series as I'm a fan of Noel Streatfeild and it just hasn't quite measured up.

Really didn't enjoy this book after enjoying the first, thought this would give me warmth and a cosy feeling however I ended up dnf this book instead

The second book in the series about acting and the theatre. Maddie is feeling lonely and frustrated. She wants to be on stage with others.
Maddie finds her way onto the set of a film and charms the crew.
These books seem a little dated now but are still enjoyable.

Yesterday I decided that I needed to read something totally different: something charming, cuddly and heartwarming. With relief, I turned to the second book in Pamela Brown's Blue Door series (the first was The Swish of the Curtain, which I reviewed some time ago), telling the story of a band of ambitious children who set up a theatre company in their small town of Fenchester. In this sequel, the older children have achieved their dreams and are now studying at stage school in London, but poor Maddy, the youngest, is only twelve years old and has been told she needs to stick with ordinary school for the time being. Pushed to her limits by the thought of all the fun the others are having, Maddy begins acting up; but soon she discovers a marvellous opportunity right on her doorstep, which will change her life once and for all. 

To her excitement, Maddy finds out that a film crew have moved into the fields at Fennymead, just outside town, where they're making a historical blockbuster about the local heroine Elizabeth of Fennymead. When she makes friends with Rodney, the film's remarkably young composer, through a bout of dodgems at the local seaside town, Maddy is invited along to watch the filming. She is thrilled to see that Felicity Warren (the actress who played Juliet at Statford when the children visited with the Bishop in the first book) is in the film. However, she's puzzled when she realises that the film crew have got a crucial fact about Elizabeth deeply wrong: she should be a child, not a grown woman. Having destabilised the filming by blurting this out to the neurotic and detail-obsessed Dutch director, Van Velden, Maddy is initially afraid that she's spoiled all chances of being welcomed back to the set. But instead - thanks to Rodney's knowledge of her acting 'career' in the Blue Door Theatre Company - she receives an extraordinary invitation, which suddenly makes the absence of her friends seem easier to bear.

Maddy is possibly the only one of the original gang who could sustain a book by herself (I may take that back later in the series, but at the moment she's the one who has stood out most strongly as an independent spirit). She's principled, indignant, outspoken, precocious ('I expect my sorrows have aged me') and entirely without guile. She's able to wrap grown-ups round her little finger, which helps her get her own way even on the film set; although I suspect that any real-world confrontation between an established film director and a stubborn twelve-year-old actress would end firmly in the adult's favour. And it's Maddy who obstinately sets out to visit the real Fennymead Castle when the obstinacy of its owner, the current Lord Moulcester, seems to be putting the film at risk. Buoyant, cheerful, golden and optimistic, this is a world where pluck and integrity get things done, and children manage to save the day against the odds.

Brown, who was sixteen when she published The Swish of the Curtain (she wrote it at fourteen, but the Second World War got in the way), was twenty when her sequel was first printed. Those four years of growing up haven't changed the remarkable innocence at the heart of the book - not, of course, that we would expect cynicism in a children's book; but Brown lives in a vanished world, which perhaps never existed, in which film directors jovially take chances on children they've never met; lone children hitch rides in strangers' lorries; bishops have the time to be generous confidants to small girls; and school is nothing but a background irritant. In the first book, I put this down to Brown's remarkably young age; here, perhaps, it's a conscious choice, to capture the perception of a better, vanished, golden world where it never rains, everything was jolly (except, obviously, the one neighbour who takes the role of Archvillain - here ably filled by the absurd Mrs Potter-Smith) - and there were always sticky buns for tea.

Perhaps it's also Brown's youth that led to the major historical boo-boo in the book. Her Elizabeth of Fennymead is a twelve-year old girl who's brought to Fennymead Castle by her wicked uncle. As the Bishop explains: 

"Elizabeth of Fennymead was believed to be a daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catherine married him before she married Henry the Eighth, you know. The Maid was kidnapped by a second cousin, Richard, Lord Moulcester, when she was quite young, and held at Fennymead with the intention of placing her forcibly on the throne at the death of Henry the Seventh."

It doesn't require me to wear my Pedantic Historian Hat in order to point out that this is a bizarre story to come up with (even though I understand that Brown needed to invent a historical character). Any moderately historically-aware child reading this would have known full well that Catherine was only able to marry Henry because it was pretty widely believed that she and Arthur hadn't even consummated their marriage, let alone had a daughter. And a daughter who was twelve?! What a prodigy that would have been, given that Arthur died mere months after his marriage, and only seven years before his father died. However, I know this is not the point, so I'm going to take off the Pedantic Historian Hat - look, it's over there - and just enjoy the nostalgia-tinted story.

If I had children (perhaps in the 7-11 range), I'd be sorely tempted to buy these books for them. They're escapist fiction of the most charming kind and, even if the plot seems implausible to me as a grown-up, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and channel my inner child in order to enjoy them. And, I must stress, they are fun to read as a adult, even if you know full well that you aren't the target audience. Luckily for me, I have several more review copies of the later books in the series, so we haven't seen the last of the Blue Door yet. I can't wait to see the chaos that ensues around Maddy in the next stage of her meteoric career.

This review will be published on my blog on 9 August 2019 at the following link:
https://theidlewoman.net/2019/08/09/maddy-alone-pamela-brown

My thanks to Steerforth Press/Pushkin Press and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

Maddy Alone is the second book in Pamela Brown’s Blue Door series. Something that makes 'Maddy Alone' stand out from a lot of old children's books is the lack of message; the book is not at all preachy, no one improves themself, and Maddy is not an angel. She feels real, naughty and occasionally she's not sorry for it.

At the end of the first book, we find out that all the Blue Door children have been accepted to an acting school in London – except Maddy, who is too young to go. This book is about what she got up to in that lonely summer without her friends – which just so happens to be accidentally becoming a film star.

In the first book, Maddy wasn’t my favourite character of the seven children, as she can be a little babyish and spoilt, but it was nice to see her come into her own when she wasn’t being sat on by six older friends and sibings! The historical film that she ends up taking part in reminded me a lot of Pauline’s film work in Ballet Shoes, and this has a very similar feel, combining the wonder of stardom with the harsh realities of film-acting being very different to stage-acting.

My thanks to Steerforth Press/Pushkin Press and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

Maddy Alone is the second book in Pamela Brown’s Blue Door series. This one was first published in 1945 (the author must have been just out of her teens at this point), and is being brought out again by Pushkin Press. In the first book, seven children, Sandra, Nigel, Jeremy, Bulldog, Lyn, Vickie and Maddie set up their own theatre company in Fenchester, where they live—they put up shows (from Shakespeare to their own plays) during the holidays and for different occasions, and finally manage to convince their parents to send them to drama school. In Maddy Alone, all the children have gone to drama school except Maddy who is now twelve but still too young to join them. Working (not very hard) at school, she feels it is unfair that they get to go to study drama while she has to study arithmetic (or in her words, or something like them, about Mr. A, Mr. B and Mr. C, who dig wells). She is excited when the holidays approach for all the others will be back and they can put on a show but it turns out that only Sandra is coming home while the rest are to stay back in London where they are needed for a show. This naturally disappoints her some more, especially since even Sandra when she’s there is more interested in going shopping with their mother. But some excitement is in store for Maddy when a film crew comes into Fenchester to shoot a historical film, and Maddy finds herself the leading lady! Maddy becomes a film star alright but also remains Maddy, able at most times to get her own way, and to get people to do what she wants, and up to plenty of mischief in the process.

This was a really quick read, much shorter than the first book but still very good fun. This time, as I already wrote, the story pretty much focuses on Maddy. One can relate to her feeling of being left out of things (of all the excitement, so to speak) because of her age, and her inability to understand/accept that the others had also got to go to school as well, but at times, at least initially, she did also come across as a tad more childish than I liked. But as things move along, and she gets her big opportunity, I also found myself appreciating how she did stay grounded and normal despite all the attention that was coming her way, and the possibility of fame—she is excited by things that are happening and not so very interested in regular school life, but doesn’t acquire airs or always want to dress up or play film star. In fact, quite the opposite, she is the characteristic Maddy “bullying” if I can call it that more than one person (including a gruffy old peer) to get what she wants, questioning things that are not to her liking (even if to means giving up the opportunities she has), and worried about letting the other Blue Doors down if she doesn’t do well enough. She learns a thing or two in the process but essentially remains the same mischievous girl. It was good fun reading of her adventures and antics (which at one point reminded me of the Family at One End Street), and of Mrs Potter-Smith making a nuisance of herself as always, and I can’t wait to pick up the next one and see what the children get up to next.

Pamela Brown, who started this series when she was just in her teens (13 according to Wikipedia; the first book was published when she was 16), was a writer, actress and television producer, and like the children in the books put on plays with her friends when a child.

The book comes out on 14 May 2019.

I first read Maddy Alone by Pamela Brown years and years ago after seeing The Swish of the Curtain on television. I loved it then and I love now, even if Maddy is a bit too bumptious for her own good. Great characters, excellent storytelling and good description make this a wonderful book that age cannot weary!

Something that makes 'Maddy Alone' stand out from a lot of old children's books is the lack of message; the book is not at all preachy, no one improves themself, and Maddy, while a generally decent person, is not an angel, she feels real, naughty and occasionally not sorry for it. However, while most of the book feels very timeless there are a few moments where its age shows.