The first book in famous children's writer (Ballet Shoes, Theatre Shoes) Noel Streatfeild's thinly-disguised four-volume book of memoirs. This volume covers her childhood as the second daughter of a gentle, learned, and genuinely good Church of England vicar, and her utter inability to fit into a well-bred, well-connected Edwardian background. Vicky/Noel is a square peg who digs in her heels and refuses to be hammered into a round hole, but while the reader admires her spirit, Streatfeild is honest about the pain and trouble this brought to her family and herself.

Vicky was clever, talented, and independent, but she must have been a very difficult person to live with.