{"product_id":"saplings","title":"Saplings","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"picright\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/WVS_Clothing_Exchange__Art.IWM_ART_LD_3918.jpg?v=1593032925\u0026amp;width=700\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAFTERWORD BY JEREMY HOLMES\u003cbr\u003e384pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155059\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'I didn't know she wrote novels for grown-ups,' people remark about Noel Streatfeild – making those of us who have been secretly enjoying them in our mothers' editions, or in battered copies with the green Boots label, feel very lucky. Indeed, Noel had not thought of writing for children until her publisher persuaded to re-work the first of her adult novels as \u003cem\u003eBallet Shoes\u003c\/em\u003e; this had sold ten million copies by the time of her death.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSaplings\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e (1945) is also about children: a family with four of them, to whom we are first introduced in the summer of 1939. Streatfeild takes a happy, successful, middle-class pre-war English family (and the Wiltshires, like their name, are very English – there is no hint of the Celtic fringe or the cosmopolitan exoticism which lurks in the background of \u003cem\u003eBallet Shoes\u003c\/em\u003e), 'beautiful, orderly, full of children' (the 'saplings'), with holidays at the seaside, a comfortable house in Regent's Park, a glamorous mother and a successful industrialist for a father, nannies and nurses, prep schools and public schools – and then tracks 'in miserable detail the disintegration and devastation which war brought to tens of thousands of such families,' writes the psychiatrist Dr Jeremy Holmes in his Afterword. Streatfeild's 'supreme gift was her ability to see the world from a child's perspective. What makes \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSaplings\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e special is her use of that skill to explore a very adult problem – the psychological impact of war and trauma on family life...' \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso available as a Persephone E-book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eA 1938 fabric by Marion Dorn was chosen for \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSaplings\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e. It is called 'Aircraft' and shows pairs of stylised pigeons in flight on a background of natural linen. It contains the imagery of aircraft being readied for war yet of birds freely in flight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eWVS Clothing Exchange by Evelyn Gibbs, 1943 © Imperial War Museum\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Noel Streatfeild","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098757976371,"sku":"gxo1789694433472","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098758009139,"sku":"ptf1789694433473","price":35.04,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098758041907,"sku":"xqv1789694433474","price":33.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098758074675,"sku":"vsw1789694433475","price":45.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/saplings_1.jpg?v=1789694438","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/saplings","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}