A Vicarage Family [is] the first of three fictionalised autobiographies … which give Noel Streatfeild's many readers, young as well as adult, an insight into the source of her material and her humour. It is risky to claim this first tale of life in an urban vicarage at the turn of the century as a source of style as well, for it is not clear whether the unmistakeable Streatfeild dialogue, the chatter for instance of the three Fossils in Ballet Shoes, was based on a genuine family mode of speech such as appears in the "story" of the vicarage which was in fact written after the early children's stories. Anyhow it is evident that Vicky, the middle sister of three, always in and out of trouble, is not only an amused but not altogether partial portrait of the author but also the origin of many of the bright, cheeky...