Whether in her serious literary novels, her children's books, or the lighter romances written under the pseudonym Susan Scarlett, Noel Streatfeild wrote about what she knew, and put to good use the experiences of her early home life and career. So from her vicarage upbringing we have Parson's Nine, Under the Rainbow, Peter and Paul and The Bell Family. From her work in munitions at the Woolwich Arsenal in World War I we gain Murder While You Work.  From her social work in Deptford came Tops and Bottoms, and her extensive war work in Civil Defence and the WVS went into I Ordered a Table for Six, Saplings and When the Siren Wailed.  There was even a short spell of modelling which she used in Clothes-Pegs and Peter and Paul.  And then there was the theatre, where her ten year acting career embraced many branches of the profession.  Chorus girls and concert parties (It Pays to be Good, Poppies for England), pantomime, with its troupe of children, (Wintle's Wonders), ballet training (Ballet Shoes, Pirouette), a touring Shakespeare company and her eventual disillusionment with the profession (The Whicharts) - all of these found their way into her books.  She had a long and distinguished literary career with 90 books, the Carnegie Medal and an O.B.E. to her credit.