It tells the story of seven young people in three different families who form an amateur theatrical group, the Blue Door Theatre Company.

It is "Bulldog", who shines in comic roles, who realises his ambition to create the elusive "swish of the curtain".

At the book's climax, the "Blue Doors" enter a drama contest which they have to win in order to be allowed to attend dramatic school to realise their dream of a career in the professional theatre.

Brown wrote four sequels: Until recently The Swish of the Curtain was the only one of the "Blue Doors" series to have been republished after the 1970s.

As this last book in the series was not published for many years, copies of it had previously become very rare and valuable, and very hard to find.