Thursday's Child by Noel Streatfeild – the first of her books I owned and still a favorite

Title: Thursday’s Child
Author: Noel Streatfeild
Illustrator: Peggy Fortnum
Publication: Random House, hardcover, 1970
Genre: Juvenile historical fiction
Setting: Early 20th century England

Description: Margaret Thursday is no ordinary foundling.  She was left on the church steps in a basket with three of everything, all of the best quality. 

She was taken in by the Miss Camerons because the vicar was a bachelor, and for ten years L52 arrived mysteriously each year for her keep.  Now the money has stopped coming and Margaret is sent to an orphanage where she befriends the three Beresfords – Lavinia, Peter, and Horatio.  Lavinia is 14 so is sent to a nearby estate to be a scullery maid, where she copes well, although gently born.  However, the orphanage is brutal and opinionated Margaret clashes with Matron’s iron-fist rule.  Conscious that Lavinia asked her to look out for Peter and Horatio, Margaret brings them with her when she runs away

My Impression: Set in early 20th century England, this has been one of my favorite Streatfeilds since I received a copy on my 11th birthday; I am sure it was the first one of her books I owned. Margaret’s adventurous spirit and determination not to be overlooked or condescended to because of being an orphan combined with the Upstairs Downstairs aspect of Lavinia’s service to Lady Corkberry at Sedgecombe Place make this book a winner. The orphanage situation is reminiscent of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and both Margaret and Bonnie, the heroine of that book, refuse to back down to authority, in part because of their personalities but also because they feel protective of others.

Through Mrs. Tanner the news did reach Lady Corkberry that perhaps all was not as well food-wise as it should be at the orphanage.

“Mrs. Smedley says she packed enough food for a small army, m’lady, yet when Lavinia came back it was clear she had eaten nothing.  Ate like a wolf she did, Mrs. Smedley said.”

Lady Corkberry was worried.  She herself had nothing to do with the orphanage, but it was a local charity and, as such, everybody’s concern.  She and her friends got girls from there who were to be trained for domestic work and boys for the stables and garden.  But she knew how easy it was to start gossip, so she said quietly:

“Thank you for telling me, Tanner.  I will talk to his lordship and see if inquiries should be made.”

Streatfeild’s brilliance is at work in this historical novel not only in the dramatic plot but in the various well-drawn characters – Lady Corkberry and her staff; the evil Matron; her second-in-command, Miss Jones; the worried teachers at the village school; and the kind vicar who discovered Margaret on the church steps but wasn’t allowed to adopt her.  Angela Bull explains in her bio of Noel Streatfeild that the kind but not very perceptive clergymen in several of her books are based on the author’s father, an ardent but out-of-touch Anglican minister. The story is not just dramatic but is also funny.  One amusing bit is when Jem, the stable boy, jokes to Margaret that she can come to him when she runs away, not dreaming she actually will.  He is terrified when she appears, sure he will lose his job, but spirits her and the Beresford boys away where no one will find them.  Jem’s parents, aunt and uncle, are equally vivid, as are the staff at Sedgecombe Place, who like Lavinia but think it is inappropriate for Lady Corkberry to interest herself in the affairs of a mere scullery maid.  

Angela Bull, Streatfeild's biographer, seems to think there is too much hectic melodrama in Thursday’s Child to put it in a category with Streatfeild’s best books but I disagree, and in terms of ambition, it is interesting.  Lavinia just wants to keep her family together and warmly considers Margaret part of the group, but security is not enough for Margaret, a foundling determined to prove herself – she has Far to Go (which is also the name of the sequel) and is determined to be independent and make a name for herself.  She needs a wider audience more than she needs a home.

Source: Personal copy.  This is my twenty-first book for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader.