Listen to the Nightingale

In addition to being an extraordinary writer, Rumer Godden made her living for years as a ballet teacher and ran her own dancing school in India. So it's not surprising that several of her children's books are set in dancing schools and theatres. Published in 1992, Listen to the Nightingale is a late-written novel, and it has an old-fashioned feel. It's rather like reading a literary Noel Streatfeild story. 

Lottie is an orphan who lives with her aunt, who is wardrobe mistress for a small but superior ballet company, Holbein's. Her mother was a ballerina (natch) and she's been taught by Madame Holbein herself (natch), and (natch) she makes her way into the elite ballet school, Queen's Chase. There is drama involving a rescued (or stolen?) dog, a duplicitous best friend, and a naughty boy who bullies her but doesn't really mean it. It's a charming fairy tale that finishes with a neat happy ending, very comforting to read.

There are poignant moments, too, and it's not all roses in the garden. There are sympathetic but also mean characters, there is anguish and loss as well as triumph and love. It doesn't really feel like a story set in the 1990s, but it belongs in a kind of timeless 'ballet world' where it's perpetually the 1950s, ballet dancers are celebrities, teachers are strict but kind and children wear cloaks to school.