posted on 05 Apr 2016

Thursday's Child by Noel Streatfeild

I was interested to read that this book was inspired by a real life encounter by the writer with a girl who had a very similar back ground to the main character, Margaret Thursday. In a short piece published in her Easter Holiday Anthology, Streatfeild wrote that, despite her humble and mysterious beginnings the real girl had gone on to be very successful and always fiercely proud of her unusual background.

In this fictional version of the story, Margaret was left on the steps of a village church in a basket as a tiny baby with 'three of everything, all of the best quality' plus a note promising to send fifty two pounds every year for her keep and schooling. She grows up to be a clever and spirited ten year old brought up in the care of Miss Selina and Miss Sylvia,two elderly spinsters of limited means overseen by Mr Hanslow, the kind Rector who gave her the surname Thursday as that was the day on which she was found. Such an uneventful and pleasant childhood is not the stuff of exciting children's books as we know. So it is no great surprise when in the first chapter Margaret is summoned to the rectory to be told that the money has stopped coming and that this, along with the increasing decrepitude of the old ladies means that she must go to live in an orphanage.

And so begins another sorry orphan tale where life in an institution isn't an awful lot better than that of the unfortunate nineteenth century children in Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist, except that this time Margaret is in definitely in charge from the start outwitting the monstrously cruel matron and enchanting the other less assertive orphans with her imaginative stories. She begins her new life in the orphanage with three companions, the siblings Lavinia, Peter and Horatio whose mother has recently died. They are clearly from a refined background with good manners and delicate features. The eldest boy Peter has a obsession for reading books ( always a pleasing attribute in a book character) and this eventually leads him into borrowing books without permission and so propels the children into running away from the orphanage and so beginning a big adventure. As Lavinia is fourteen she has been sent into service at the big house nearby and Margaret takes on the responsibility for looking out for the two brothers in the orphanage. 

There are plenty of kind and generous adults in this story to contrast with the nasty matron. What follows the children's escape from the orphanage is an entertaining tale of life on the run, firstly living on a canal boat with the accommodating parents of Jem the stable boy from the house where Lavinia works. During this time they have to work very hard as 'leggers' who guide the horse along the towpath. This gives the author the chance to educate the reader about the everyday fascinating details of such an unfamiliar life on the canals, something that she always tries to do in her many books. Circumstances mean that they then have to move on to live as part of a travelling theatre, and once again we are given some fascinating insight into this colourful world where children are expected to work very hard to earn their keep. Streatfeild was herself passionate about the theatre and often includes it as a component in her stories.

This is an exciting eventful story with lots of memorable characters along the way. I particularly warmed to Mrs Smith, Jem's imposing canal boat  mother who played her part as one of several surrogate mothers to the children:

' She had loomed up out of the night, so enormous a woman it was as if a huge animal was standing beside her ...The mass of dark hair with a trilby hat on top of it tied under her chin by a scarf. The wide voluminous black dress. The vivid coloured shawl which was round her shoulders.'

A final mention is needed about the many intricate black and white illustrations drawn by Peggy Fortum  which are an essential part of the atmosphere for this thoroughly enjoyable book.

 

Karen Argent

29th March 2016