Author(s): Jean Ure

Children Fiction

Rags to riches story of a young orphan who becomes a famous actress. A Roaring Good Read launch title. Daisy is brought up in a foundling's hospital in Victorian times. At ten she is sent into service as a skivvy at the Dobell Academy.There she watches all the pupils learning how to be young ladies, wearing fine clothes and learning how to read, write and... dance. Daisy dreams of being like them one day and painstakingly teaches herself to read with the help of one kind teacher. She is caught dancing in one of the piano rooms and is and reproved for having 'ideas above her station', but undaunted she perseveres with her dream to be a 'beautiful lady on the stage.' Daisy even makes up a stage name -- Marguerite Dobell. One night, in her attic bedroom, she sees a ghost -- an old lady sitting in a rocking chair looking through a scrapbook of photos and theatre programmes. The woman is strangely familiar . When the young ladies of Dobell Academy put on their end of term dancing display, Daisy risks being caught again and does her own dance in the corridor -spotted by two late-comers who realise that Daisy is the perfect little dancer to play the part of Dolly in their production