Pamela Brown was just 14 when she started writing her first book, The Swish of the Curtain, in 1938. A year later, when World War Two broke out, she left Colchester County High School and went to live in Wales with her family. She continued with her writing however, sending chapters of the book to her friends back in Colchester, Essex, and finally finished the book when she was 16.
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The Swish of the Curtain tells the story of seven stage-struck children who form an amateur theatre company in a town called Fenchester, Brown's made-up name for her home town of Colchester. She herself was passionate about the theatre and, from an early age, put on plays with her friends. She went on to write several sequels to her first book, and other children?s novels. Her career as an actress and television producer provided her with much detail about early television and life in repertory.[1]
For some years, Pamela Brown produced children's programmes for BBC television. One of her final television appearances was as a guest on Blue Peter alongside the various young actors and actresses who appeared in the television adaptation of The Swish of the Curtain, including Sarah Greene, who was later to be a Blue Peter presenter.[3]
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