Possibly no one but Miss Noel Streatfeild could have carried off the outrageous plot of The Children on the Top Floor with such an air of insouciant plausibility. A winsome bachelor "television personality", delivering his Christmas message, rashly suggests that listeners with families of children are to be envied. Oh! to wake in the morning "to the squeal of delighted children opening their stockings!" Squeals the next morning there are: four assorted infants are lying on his step. Four Coram-like orphans, without the hint of a parent—a dashing fictional gesture…. Four talents and temperaments in Streatfeild country! A daydream to end all daydreams.

"Everybody's Children, For and Against Families," in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspaper Ltd. (London) 1964; reproduced from The Times Literary Supplement by permission), No. 3274, November 26, 1964, p. 1062.