Jean Estoril is the pseudonym for one of the great children's author's Mabel Esther Allan. Over her life she wrote 130 children's books and was heavily influenced by the early 1920/30s authors Oxenham and Brent-Dyer. Drina Ballerina is the final book in her Drina series, begun in 1957. The series follows the life of Andrina Adamo, an orphan of the prima ballerina Elizabeth Ivory, who is raised in England by her grandparents. They always felt that dancing led to their daughter's death and were horrified when Drina announced that she wanted to dance, so they did everything they could to dissuade her from the career before finally realising it's meant to be and allowing Drina to study ballet.
This book reads like it was written in the 1960s, but was edited to make it more up to date with the period it was published in. Personally I think they ruined it and should have left it alone. Estoril wrote her books in a gentle manner without the usual teen angst that's been building over the last century. They were meant to be a comforting haven for children to go to, not threaded with bursts of unexplainable anger and nastiness that have no bearing on the actual story and make parts of the book look like an orange in a bowl of bananas.
Still, you can see Estoril's original story under the tripe and it rounds off the series beautifully as Drina joins the Dominick Company and begins the life of a ballerina. The series is beautiful and worth reading to a child. I'm sad to come to the end, but happy to finally see Drina all grown up and living her dream.
2 comments:
Hi, I've just come across this post. Drina Ballerina was actually first published in 1991, MEA wanted to continue the series but the publishers weren't interested at the time, but then when they were republished in paperback she managed to get the last one published. I agree that there are inconsistencies within the text (the video sticks in my memory), and it may well have been written earlier, but MEA herself approved the book! She also updated the others a bit for republication.
The profits from the Drina paperbacks enabled her to publish a series of autobiographical writings which are fascinating if you're interested in learning more about her.
I doubt MEA had a choice if she wanted to get her last book out. The series needed to be ended. Drina couldn't be left the way she was.
I never read the other paperbacks, all my Drina's are the originals. That's awful that they updated them. They just wouldn't feel the same.
I definitely think the final Drina was written decades before the 1991 publication. It just doesn't feel right. Too disjointed.
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