The Steam Whistle Theatre Company by Vivian French – 15/20 Books of Summer

The Pringle Players are down on their luck and decide to head north from London for new opportunities. Inspired by the train that will take them to the small market town of Uncaster, Pa Pringle gives the theatrical troupe a new name for their new venture: The Steam Whistle Theatre Company.  

His children, Charlie and Rosie, are excited to travel by train for the first time.  Rosie, is not as obsessed with the theatre as her father but she accepts the responsibility:

Her big brown eyes and curly hair meant that she was the one chosen to play abandoned daughters, little lost heiresses or wistful orphans.

This had advantages: her parts involved wearing silk dresses or artistically designed rags, and she didn’t have to learn too many lines. Wistful orphans were not usually given to long speeches. Instead, they sighed a good deal, and clasped their hands together while silver tears trickled down their pale and hollow cheeks. Rosie could cry to order, especially if she had a piece of onion hidden in her handkerchief.

Mrs. Arabella Poskett of Uncaster Hall is a sympathetic character, a recent and fairly helpless widow, faced with dozens of bills and no way to pay them. Her servants have fled, her spoiled children escaped to a relative, but she still has loyal Edie Boiler, a kitchen maid, who suggests they take in boarders and sets off to place notices in the town. Edie has all the practical knowledge her mistress lacks; also, she wants to keep her job and avoid returning to the workhouse

If Pa Pringle was hoping to be a big fish in a small pond, he is doomed to disappointment. There is no room at the inn, although the landlord grudgingly promises use of his stage. Luckily, Edie has met Rosie, and gave her one of Mrs. Poskett’s cards about the rooms available, and soon the Pringles have moved in, although they barely have enough money to pay six shillings for their first week’s rent. Unfortunately, a rival act beat them to Uncaster and has gained all the attention (and spare change), Little Baby Bubbles, an obnoxious child magician with a light-fingered stage mother. The locals are not very enthusiastic about Shakespeare and Pa Pringle would be better off lowering his lofty expectations to provide lower-brow entertainment. The warm-hearted Pringles have to figure out how to fill a theatre with paid customers, and when they grasp Mrs. Poskett’s financial constraints, they also want to help her keep her home.

This is an enjoyable story about an irrepressible family that reminded me a little of Joan Aiken’s Wolves Chronicles, although written for a younger audience. I think we’ve all bought a book for its cover and this one caught my attention on a trip to London several years ago. Maybe the author’s name caught my eye as I had bought an earlier book by French, The Robe of Skulls (which looked like a good orphan fantasy), for one of my nephews in the past.

It’s a pity I didn’t read this book right away because now my youngest niece is 14 and starting high school tomorrow. I can’t coax her to read Anne of Green Gables and this is definitely too young for her. Maybe my young friend Jeremy Eyre is the right age for this book – he must be about 9.

This is one of my 20 Books of Summer and it’s also my fourteenth book for the Intrepid Reader's 2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I did spend the last week reading the second Niccolò book, The Spring of the Ram, but it is far too complicated to review. Or maybe I am too worn out after reading it, although it was nearly as good as Niccolò Rising.

Title: The Steam Whistle Theatre Company
Author: Vivian French
Publication: Walker, paperback, 2019
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction
Setting: Victorian England
Source: Personal copy