Noel Streatfield was born in 1895 in Eastbourne, the second fo a family of six children.During World Was I,she worked in a soliders'hospital kitchen and then in a munitions factory, and after the war she trained as an actress at the Academy of Dramatic Art.

She ahd already begun writing and producing her own plays when her first novel,The Wicharts,was published in1936,and she went on to write dozens more novels and plays for children and adults.In 1939,she was awarded the Carnegie gold medal for her distinguished contribution to children's literature,and in 1983, she was honoured with an O.B.E for contributions to Literature and England.

During World War II,she once again worked tirelessly,serving as an air raid warden,running a mobile canteen and organizing the evacuation of families from London, among many other roles.

She made a good recovery from a stroke in 1968 and continued publishing novels into the late 1970s.She died in a nursing home in 1986.

Pauline,Petrova and Posy are three orphans who were adopted as babies by Great Uncle Matthew(or GUM, for short)and given the surname"Fossil"after his hobby of fossil collecting.GUM sets off on a long sea voyage and the money he has left behind for the care fo the children is running out fast, when they are accepted as charity pupils at the Children's Academy of Dancing and Stage Training.There they determine to make the name "Fossil"famous, each in their own particular way.

The different personalities and talents of the children are vividly described.Posy is by far the best dancer,Pauline is a brilliant actress and Petrova-well,Petrova is more interested in airplanes.

This beautiful story in which children succeed on their own, without running to grown-ups for help,will inspire every reader to strive to fulfill their own life ambitions, and to persevere until they achieve them.