Ballet Shoes

First published in 1936, this children's novel follows three adopted sisters - Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil - who live in a London house on the Cromwell Road under the care of Sylvia Brown and the cook Nana, while their guardian Gum is away collecting fossils. Money is short, so boarders are taken in, and the girls train at Madame Fidolia's Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training. Pauline is drawn to acting, Posy to ballet, and Petrova to engines and aeroplanes. The book traces how each sister finds a vocation, and how the household holds together, as they work toward independence on the stage and off it.

Bound in purple cloth with Modigliani paper sides printed and blocked with a colour design by Inga Moore. Dark pink endpapers. Purple slipcase.