Judith Eagle steps back in time with The Great Theatre Rescue

About Author

Judith Eagle introduces her latest historical fiction novel, The Great Theatre Rescue, which takes us back to bustling theatre land in 1930's London. Judith is also the author of The Stolen Songbird, The Secret Starling, The Pear Affair and The Accidental Stowaway.

Judith grew up in London with two sisters, one cat, five guinea pigs and three gerbils. As a child she loved reading, history, creating her own comics, and dressing up. Over the years, she has worked for fashion magazines and school libraries and now - her favourite thing - writes books.

She lives with her husband and rescue cat Stockwell in South London.

Interview

Judith Eagle steps back in time with The Great Theatre Rescue (Faber Children's Books)

February 2025

Expect thrills, spills and bags of entertainment in Judith Eagle's new historical fiction adventure, set in a theatre in 1930's London, The Great Theatre Rescue. When Charley is sent away from the theatre - the only home she has ever known - and it is threatened with closure, she knows she has to find a way to save it.

5* Review: "A stunning and exciting historical adventure story." Read a Chapter Extract from The Great Theatre Rescue.

In this month's Q&A with Judith Eagle, find out what inspired her atmospheric, action-packed historical fiction adventure; how writing about the past can help bring it to life for young readers; and her tips on setting stories in the past.

Q&A with Judith Eagle

"History is full of true happenings that are brilliant inspiration for writing stories. Old paintings and photographs and museums
are exploding with ideas."

1. Hello Judith, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone! Can you share three surprising things about yourself?

First, I love tap dancing but I'm a bad tap dancer! I've been learning tap for about five years. You wouldn't believe the amount of concentration it takes to remember the steps. Sadly I'll never be able to dance like I do in my dreams, but it is very good exercise for the brain.
Secondly, I didn't learn to read until I was seven - even though my parents were both librarians, and my sisters were reading massive books by the time they were five. My breakthrough moment was a nursery rhyme that went 'Bell horses, bell horses what time of day? One o clock, two o clock, three and away!'
And finally, I spent a lot of my childhood pretending to be 'Becky', a poor Victorian scullery maid/orphan. I'd squash myself into a tiny cupboard under the eaves and make my little sister (aka 'matron') bring me gruel.

2. What kinds of books do you enjoy writing?

I love writing books with orphans and villains and long buried secrets. I'm keen on a big cast of warm-hearted characters and I really enjoy creating atmospheric settings. Most importantly, I adore a full blown happy ending.

3. What first drew you to writing historical fiction adventures? What do children gain from reading stories set in the past?

Initially I started writing historical fiction because it was a way of escaping modern technology - mobile phones and computers really do make solving mysteries much too easy! But then I discovered that history is full of true happenings that are brilliant inspiration for writing stories. Old paintings and photographs and museums are exploding with ideas.

I think historical fiction brings the history learned in the classroom alive. It's like taking a simple sketch and then painting in colour, and suddenly you are right at the heart of it, seeing, feeling, and experiencing everything. Plus, no matter where you go to, whatever time or place, the things we care about are still the same: family, friends, love, courage, trust, home.

4. How much research do you do into specific periods before you start to write your books?

I do a lot of research before starting to write, and while I'm writing. The more facts I have at my fingertips, the more 'solid' my story feels. So for The Great Theatre Rescue, I did a lot of research around Soho in the 1930's, finding out about the people, the shops, the jazz clubs, the theatres, and the cafes.

I read books that I knew my character Charley would love (Just William is her favourite) and watched films she would have seen (she's seen 42nd Street five times). I learned about the kind of food she'd eat, and what her home would look like and the type of transport she'd take. Details like these help to create a vivid sense of time and place.

5. Can you tell us more about The Great Theatre Rescue, your new book? What three words would you use to describe it?

Charley Wren has grown up in the theatre, and her absolute dream is to become a world famous tap dancer. The theatre is home, and the performers - Violet 'the Voice' Nightingale, trumpeter Wilbert Heaven, tap dancing duo The Skip Sisters and gymnasts The Tumbling Twins - are her family. But when her dad Toby is called away on urgent business, Charley is wrenched away from everything she loves and sent to a dreadful boarding school. Soon, word reaches her that the theatre has fallen on hard times. Even worse, a sinister figure called Badger Man is plotting its downfall.

Can Charley and her mysterious new friend Jewel escape back to London and save the theatre? What is the secret that threatens to explode Charley's world? And most importantly - will the show go on?

Describe it in three words? DRAMA! Mystery, intrigue.

6. Why did you set The Great Theatre Rescue in the 1930s? Is it based on a true story or a real theatre?

London theatreland was an exciting, glamorous place in the 1930's with over 40 theatres putting on operas, ballets, variety shows and plays. Soho was the very centre of jazz, and musicians from all over the world came to play and listen to music.

While the setting in The Great Theatre Rescue is real (the streets and the shops and the cafes mentioned all existed), the Wren is invented. I placed it in the middle of all the hubbub, on Dean Street in Soho.

7. Can you tell us a bit more about creating the setting for this story? Did it involve lots of walking around London as well as other kinds of research?

Years ago, I was a student at Saint Martin's School of Art on Charing Cross Road, which is right next door to Soho. I ate lunch in an Italian café on Old Compton Street, and bought fabric from Berwick Street market. My first job as an assistant on a fashion magazine meant I had to race all over London collecting clothes and jewellery, so I got to know the geography of the city very well.

Before starting to write, I read books about 1930's London, studied street maps, and looked at lots of old photographs which I found online. Gradually I was able to peel back the layers of Soho, and imagine what it would have been like in Charley's day.

8. What are your top tips for creating a believable setting for your stories and building the atmosphere of a place, as you have done with London and the theatre in this story?

First, do your research properly. Read about what it was like living in the time you are writing about. What did people wear, what did they eat, what did their homes look like? Look at pictures for clues too - these can be photographs and paintings or old films.

I also like to read children's books that my characters might have read at the time. Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild was published in 1936, so it's a little bit later than the time I was writing about, but it helped me build a picture of what it was like to grow up in 1930's London.

Next, once you have done your research, and you are ready to describe your setting, don't forget to use all your senses. What can you see, smell, hear, taste, touch? I like to picture my settings in my head, and watch the scenes unfold.

9. We meet some real people within the fictional story, why do you enjoy bringing real and fictional people together? Why did you choose to bring Duke Ellington into the mix and how did you find out about him and his music?

Bringing in real people helps to ground my stories. I hope it adds authenticity, and brings an extra layer of pleasure for the reader, who can then go off and discover more if they would like to. For example, I would encourage everyone to seek out the clip of the Nicholas Brothers dancing their amazing routine in the film Stormy Weather. The combination of tap, ballet and acrobatics is breathtaking. It's the kind of dancing my fictional character, Charley Wren aspires to.

I listened to a lot of music from that time - Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and of course the famous jazz composer, band leader and pianist Duke Ellington - to get me in the mood. I was delighted when I read Ellington's biography and discovered that he toured England in 1933. The tour was a huge success, and reignited his love of music. I decided he had to play a part. Plus I discovered that he had his own special way of countering stage fright, which Charley also suffers from. A great example of how history and fiction can collide.

10. If you could meet a real historical figure, who would you want it to be? And if you could step back into a specific time and place, where would you choose and why?

That is a difficult question. Being a somewhat cautious person, I fear there might be some drawbacks to actually stepping back in time. For example I am obsessed by the Victorians, but what if I ended up as a chimney sweep or a child factory worker, toiling away for fourteen hour days in terrible conditions? And although I am currently writing a book set in the Blitz, I definitely wouldn't want to find myself sheltering in the London Underground, listening to bombs exploding in the distance, and not knowing if my home would still be standing when I went back above ground. I think I would rather travel back in time from the safety of my armchair and aided by a book!

But if I had to choose, I wouldn't mind being part of a big, happy, Edwardian family, reading books like The Railway Children, wearing sailor dresses, eating lots of trifle, and longing to be a Suffragette.

And the historical figure I would most like to meet? Perhaps I could join Charles Dickens on one of his long walks around London, and he could point out all the people and the places that inspired the characters and settings in his books.

More from Judith Eagle

The Stolen Songbird (Faber Children's Books)

In The Stolen Songbird, three children are accidentally caught up in the theft of a famous painting, and must find the thief and return it, before their own families are blamed. Set in 1950's London, The Stolen Songbird is an action-packed mystery that also explores friendship, accepting difference and fighting for what is right. Read a Chapter from The Stolen Songbird

The Accidental Stowaway (Faber Children's Books).

In The Accidental Stowaway, an exciting adventure set on board a ship, Patch is the accidental stowaway with an eye for trouble; she discovers a mystery on the ship but only has a few days to solve it or she and her friends will be in desperate danger.

Download a chapter from The Accidental Stowaway

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