Dorrie runs off when she mistakenly thinks she’s failed to get a part in the end-of-term ballet, but she comes back safely, in a taxi rather being carried by a hero or picked up by the police, and, although she’s hurt her ankle slightly, she hasn’t been run over by a car like Lydia Robinson of the Gemma books, rescued from a Scottish mountain on New Year’s Eve like Jane Foster of the Wells books (lucky Jane) or had to ride a horse through the fog like Veronica Weston of the Wells books.

There are some things which seem to have been pretty much copied out of the author’s Drina books, such as Debbie’s photo appearing in a newspaper and not an awful lot actually happens. Both girls, aged 13, win scholarships to a ballet school in London, and move there from their home in Birkenhead, living with an auntie and attending the school every day. The book’s written in the first person, from the viewpoint of Dorrie (Doria), who’s far more thoughtful and less confident than her non-identical twin Debbie (Deborah). They aren’t identical twins – it’s not that tropey! In fact, the whole point of the book is that they’re very different in both looks and personality. Girls’ own authors tend to love to write about twins, so it’s really rather surprising that there aren’t more books about twins at ballet schools or theatre schools! This reads as if it ought to be the first in a series, but she seems to have lost interest in the Darke twins after reading this book, and written her Wood Street series instead. I said that I wasn’t going to read anything else by Jean Estoril/Mabel Esther Allan because of her sarky remarks about women from Lancashire being fat … but I just felt like reading a ballet book. Setinthepast on Elizabeth of the Garret Theatr…ĭavida Chazan on Elizabeth of the Garret Theatr…ĭavida Chazan on Blackbird’s Song by Katy …ĭamyanti Biswas on Great Coastal Railway Journeys… The Courtesan and the Samurai by Lesley Downer.Elizabeth of the Garret Theatre by Gwendoline Courtney.Then at Easter she goes to Italy to meet her unknown Italian grandmother - and at Genoa she gets an unexpected opportunity to dance with the Dominick Ballet Company itself.

Here she feels 'almost a new girl' after her year in the country, but she soon settles down to the life she loves.

'Drina Adams (whose real name is Andrina Adamo and whose mother was the famous dancer Elizabeth Ivory) is back again at the Dominick Ballet School in London. Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing to edges and corners, no inscriptions, price-clipped dust-jacket shows some edge and shelf wear with rubbing, small chips and tears to edges, (see photographs) Hodder and Stoughton, 1959, illustrated colour frontispiece, line drawings in text, illustrated end-papers, gilt illustration on front cover, hardcover, dust-jacket

Ballet for Drina by Jean Estoril