British · 1895–1986
Noel Streatfeild (1895-1986) was an English author best known for children's books about talented young people. She was born in Sussex, the daughter of a clergyman who later became a bishop, and worked as an actress in touring repertory companies before she began writing. Her first novel for adults appeared in 1931. Ballet Shoes, published in 1936, was her first children's book and became her most famous. It told of three adopted sisters who train for the stage, and it launched a run of "Shoes" books that included Theatre Shoes, Skating Shoes and Apple Bough. She also wrote Thursday's Child and The Circus Is Coming, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1938. During the Second World War she did war work and wrote about it. Streatfeild was made an MBE in 1983. Her books drew on her own stage experience and treated children's ambitions, hard work and family life with plain good sense. They are still in print and shaped the modern family and career story for young readers.