Product Description

With the rest of the Blue Door company away at drama school, and their theatre temporarily closed, the imminent holidays hold no excitement for Maddy Fayne. But the arrival of a film company in Fenchester, and their unexpected search for a new young leading lady, open up possibilities that Maddy's friends can only dream of.

This novel, the second in the Blue Door series, sees the youngest heroine of The Swish of the Curtain become a star in her own right.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57179 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

At last!
I have been waiting to read this for years! my favourite book is swish of the curtain (the first book in the blue door theatre series) and i have been trying for ages to obtain an original copy of Maddy alone. I even badgered the publishers because they released a new edition of the swish of the curtain . the wait was worth it and finally we can read what happens to Maddy now the others have gone to stage school. Lets hope they release the next books soon!

Maddy Alone Pamela Brown
I first read this series of books by Pamela Brown passed down to me from my older sister, we both loved the books and read them many times, and never tired of them. I am now about to purchase a copy for my Granddaughter. I am so pleased to see that these well loved stories are being re-published.

Disappointing sequel
I loved The Swish of the Curtain, both when I was little, and when I recently re-read it. It's all terribly unlikely, sure, just as all the similar Noel Streatfield books are, but she does enough work to make the story of a group of children starting their own theatre and embarking on a career in drama plausible. It's really amazing she wrote the book when she was so young. I was pleased, then, to find there was a sequel- Maddy Alone (and two others). When I came to actually read it, though....one of the annoying things about the Streatfield books is that they are so over-the-top down on "swanking" and bad behaviour. If anyone starts to act like a "little madam", they are brought down to earth FAST.
NOT SO with Maddy Alone. The book opens with Maddy throwing a strop and locking herself in her room, refusing to go to school, because she, oo, hates school! So boring! The Bishop comes by, and, not bothered by her playing truant, takes her out for lunch as a treat. This sets the precedent for the whole book- she behaves horribly, sobbing and stamping her foot when she doesn't want to do something and insulting anyone in range- and she is immediately rewarded and adored. When visiting the set of a big Hollywood film being made nearby, she is quickly cast as the lead, despite her acting experience being confined to a few amateur dramatics in the past. Nobody questions this. She is a super-smash in the role, and proclaimed as a great new star. Her old enemy Mrs Potter-Smith from the Ladies Institute reappears, as a kind of super-villian spreading poison and dissent everywhere she goes, until she gets her comeuppance in cartoon style. Maddy is not able to attend the big London premiere of her film as she has exams at school, so she tries to cycle there by herself, and is taken most of the way by a worshipping lorry driver. Everyone says Three Cheers for Maddy! when she arrives- her headmistress is there, so she announces to her that she will be going to drama school in the future-no more boring lessons for Maddy. But lots of sticky buns- yum yum! Although the Streatfield books are pure wish fufilment, she makes her characters jump through a few hoops before they make it big, and we are happier for them in the end because of it. Here, everything is handed over on a plate to the newly-obnoxious central character. Weirdly, although Pamela Brown must have been older when she wrote this sequel, this book could quite believeably have been written by a teenager- the cliches are ridiculous. I suppose this could be recommended for much younger readers, but doesn't deserve instant classic status like The Swish of the Curtain.