The Maitlands: All Change at Cuckly Place was first
published in 1979. It is now out of print.
Story | Connections
to Other Books | Thoughts
| Editions and Availability
Story
The Maitlands: All Change at Cuckly Place begins five
years after the end of Meet
the Maitlands. Following the death of the Squire, both
of David's elder brothers resign from the army. Colonel Tom Maitland,
who has inherited Cuckley Place, moves in with his wife, Emma,
and children Henry, Fanny and George. Then Major Timothy Maitland
writes to ask whether he and his family (wife Kitty, and daughters
Angela, Sylvia and Ruth) can move into empty rooms in Cuckly Place,
at least initially, when they return to England from India.
Miss Dinage is getting married, and had planned to give up the
governess position at the Rectory; but with nine children now
needing educating (the elder boys being sent to school), an arrangement
is made for her to teach them all at the Place. While these changes
are happening at Cuckly, Violet has graduated from her Grammar
School and won a scholarship at Oxford. She has also become involved
in the women's sufferage movement.
For some years, Chloe has been attending dancing classes, and
- without her parents' knowlege - has progressed from baby skipping
and ballroom dancing into toe dancing and ballet. Angela does
piano lessons at a private school, and one day, while she is waiting
for her lesson, she is convinced to join a Greek dancing performance,
filling in for a girl who has broken her wrist. The school is
impressed with her dancing, and offers her free piano and Greek
dancing lessons, and a place as a weekly boarder, in return for
acting as a demonstrator when their head dancing teacher gave
lectures. Chloe is furious when she finds out, and as a result
of this David withdraws her from her dancing classes. She and
Selina are sent to a finishing school in France, but Chloe is
determined that nothing will stand in the way of her learning
to dance. John comes to realise that he wants to be ordained:
traditionally the youngest son of the family has become rector,
but Andrew has made it quite clear that he intends to go into
the Navy.
Connections to Other
Books
The Maitlands: All Change at Cuckly Place is a direct
sequel to Meet the Maitlands.
It seems likely that Noel had originally intended to write further
books about the Maitland family.
Thoughts
(This section contains "spoilers" for those who have
not read the book.)
The Maitlands: All Change at Cuckly Place is, if anything,
even more disappointing than Meet
the Maitlands. For some reason, Noel chose to more than
double the number of characters, meaning that the lack of focus
of Meet the Maitlands
is even more apparent here.
One can only speculate as to what would have happened to the
Maitland family if Noel had written further books in the series.
It seems likely that Chloe would have succeeded, in the face of
parental opposition, in becoming a dancer. Some of the boys would
have certainly died in the First World War. In particular, John's
similarities to Baruch Churston of Parson's
Nine suggest that he would not have survived unscathed,
if he survived at all, and that this would have had a very serious
effect on Selina. In Parson's
Nine, Baruch commits suicide rather than go to war, and
much of the latter half of the book focuses on the impact this
has on his twin sister, Susanna, who is similar in personality
to Selina. As the Maitlands series is aimed at children, suicide
seems unlikely, as does a repetition of the extreme reactions
of Susanna. Nevertheless, the last line ofThe Maitlands: All
Change at Cuckly Place ("John will, of course, be a
soldier") does not bode well for John and Selina.
Editions and Availability
UK Editions
The Maitlands: All Change at Cuckly Place was first
published in 1979, by W. H. Allen. It was illustrated by Antony
Maitland. It does not appear to have been reissued at any stage.
US Editions
There does not seem to have been a US edition of The Maitlands:
All Change at Cuckly Place.
Out of Print
The Maitlands: All Change at Cuckly Place is now out
of print, and the lack of paperback editions mean that there are
relatively few copies available on the second-hand market. In February 2004, second hand copies through online booksellers
start in price at £18. (Source: Addall
Used and Out of Print Book Search.)
