Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild - rerun

Backlisted

Backlisted Podcast

Arts, Books, Leisure, Hobbies

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2025

⏱️ 93 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A timely revisit of our 2022 Christmas special which celebrates Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, a classic of children’s literature and the childhood favourite of our producer, Nicky Birch. We are joined by the writer Una McCormack and Tanya Kirk, the Lead Curator of Printed Heritage Collections (1601-1900) at the British Library, who are both lifetime Streatfeild fans. Ballet Shoes was an immediate bestseller upon publication and the runner-up for the inaugural Carnegie Medal. It has never been out of print and was the first in a series of ‘Shoes’ books by Streatfeild. It has been adapted many times both as an audiobook and for film and television and in 2019 BBC News included Ballet Shoes on its list of the 100 most influential novels of all time. We discuss why this might be the case and much more besides and even hear from Miss Streatfeild herself. And it being a Christmas episode, there is a fiendish festive quiz. We also feature two other classic books by writers best known through their writing for children. John discusses The Giant under the Snow by John Gordon, an eerie Puffin classic from 1968, while Andy revels in the darkness of John Christopher’s The Death of Grass, first published in 1956, a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, definitely written for adults and perfect for cutting through your post-lunch torpor. Enjoy! *For £150 off any Serious Readers HD Light and free UK delivery use the discount code: BACK at seriousreaders.com/backlisted * To purchase any of the books mentioned in this episode please visit our bookshop at uk.bookshop.org/shop/backlisted where all profits help to sustain this podcast and UK independent bookshops. * For information about everything mentioned in this episode visit www.backlisted.fm *If you'd like to support the show and join in with the book chat, listen without adverts, receive the show early and get extra bonus fortnightly episodes and original writing, become a patron at www.patreon.com/backlisted *You can sign up to our free monthly newsletter here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Backlisted is supported by Serious Readers.
0:03.3	Which is fitting because that's what we are.
0:06.0	I find my eyes get tired in the evenings and it's easier to read during daylight.
0:10.0	And a Serious Reader's HD Essential Light gives you the full spectrum of daylight.
0:14.8	Suddenly, every word is sharp, the contrast is better and the strain just goes.
0:19.9	Which means I can read longer and moan less.
0:22.6	And that's good for everyone.
0:24.4	Backlisted listeners get £150 off the HD Essential plus free UK delivery with the code
0:31.3	back at seriousreaders.com forward slash back.
0:36.0	And you've got 30 days to try it at home risk-free.
0:39.1	That's seriousreaders.com forward slash back and use the code B-A-C-K.
0:44.3	And now on with the show. Hello? Hello. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. How is everyone? Well, good morning is presumptuous. Good night. Good evening. Good afternoon. So this is a rerun episode, one of our favourites. We get to revisit. And this is really exciting for me because
1:28.7	it really is my favourite book ever. This is still your favourite book ever. Yes, despite doing
1:35.8	10 years of backlisted, this is still my favourite book ever. I think we made it even favouriter
1:41.9	as well. I think we were so good on this episode.
1:46.0	Actually, I'd say not we were so good, Una, you were so good on this episode.
1:51.1	I could possibly comment.
1:52.4	This is an amazing thing.
1:54.6	This has been my favourite children's book, I would say that, that I listened to and read so many times as a child.
2:01.5	And then we did this show about it. And Una told me in the show something so unbelievable about this book that my
2:10.6	jaw dropped to the floor and I have to say it's totally changed how I see about this book. And
2:15.7	that's what you've got to look forward to in this show.
	...

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