At Freddie's

Book excerpt: A London theater school resists the cultural shifts of the 1960s in this novel by the Booker Prize-winning author—with an introduction by Simon Callow. It is the 1960s, and London’s West End theaters all rely on Freddie Wentworth, the formidable proprietress of the Temple Stage School, to supply them with child actors for their productions of everything from Shakespeare to musicals to Christmas pantomimes. Of unknown age and origin, Freddie is a skirt-swathed enigma—a woman who by sheer force of character has turned herself and her school into a national institution. But as the cultural revolution transforms London, not even Freddie can keep its influence at bay. Basing this intimate novel on her experiences teaching at London’s Italia Conti stage school, Penelope Fitzgerald spins the story of Jonathan, a child actor of great promise, and his slick rival Mattie; Joey Blatt, who has wicked plans to rescue Freddie's from insolvency; and Freddie herself, who faces an increasingly urgent choice between her principles and the school’s survival.