["A Vicarage Family"] is an autobiography written as a story. Mostly it comes off very well, though every once in a while the impersonality becomes too self-conscious as, for instance, in the recurrence of the expressions "the children's father," or "the children's mother," where "father" and "mother" would have been natural.

But this is a small quibble about a story that evokes matter-of-factly the hardships and rewards of English clerical life in the early years of this century. Miss Streatfeild sees herself, the Vicky of her book, with the remarkably clear vision not only of hindsight but also of a warm and understanding maturity.

Perhaps she tends to excuse the inexcusable a bit too much. Vicky's "difficult" label, it quickly becomes clear, was due to adult misunderstanding, and to what seems to be deliberate obtuseness of parents and teachers to her needs….

Aside from the record of hurdles...