Eloise is a six-year-old who lives in a hotel because her wealthy, career-orientated parents are rarely at home. She could indeed be a denizen of Celtic Tiger Dublin, a capital city studded with fancy hotels and, we are led to believe these days, populated by fabulously rich folk who zoom in and out of the airport on their way to corporate deals and high finance in the global market. She could also be a hopelessly withdrawn, damaged child with a bleak future because of the obvious parental neglect for which all the money in the world can't compensate.
In fact, Eloise is a character from a book that was published half a century ago in New York. Written by Kay Thompson, who starred alongside Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face, and illustrated by artist Hilary Knight, Eloise was an instant success when she was first created.
Living at the Plaza, she is a defiant, sophisticated child who is minded by an English nanny and who in turn minds her pet dog Weenie and her turtle, Skipperdee ("the Plaza is the only hotel in New York that will allow you to have a turtle").
Eloise relishes every single aspect of her life, which involves a lot of "skibbling" up and down the 15 floors of the Plaza, from the Switchboard to the Boiler Room, the Grand Ballroom to the Men's Room. Although she is able to charge everything she needs, and has room service for anything her heart might desire, she is still to be found rummaging in the Package Room in case a parcel has arrived for her, or getting under the feet of the busy busboys in the Crystal Room, "helping". She still has to do her lessons. In short, her life is (in its own singular way) as routine-driven and lonely as that of many poorer children.
She relies on her imagination to fill up her day, going into rooms and pretending she is an orphan so people will feel sorry for her and "give me a piece of melon or something". We realise just how isolated she is by throwaway remarks, such as what she says about her nanny: "She always says everything 3 times/like Eloise you cawn't cawn't cawn't/Sometimes I hit her on the ankle with a tassel/She is my mostly companion."
Presumably the English nanny is the key to why Simon and Schuster are publishing Eloise in the UK for the first time ever, 55 years after her first incarnation. This nanny, who says "for Lord's sake" every two seconds, puts Mary Poppins in the ha'penny place. She has eight hairpins "made out of bones", wears an enormously large corset, eats Irish bacon, and sings a twee little wake-up song in the morning: "London from bottom to top is zup/The keeper in the shop is zup/ And even Mrs Mop is zup/Oh what a lovely mawning."
Whatever the reason for this late introduction to Eloise, readers on this side of the Atlantic will be eternally grateful to have made her acquaintance. In text and in cartoon image, she is redoubtable and irresistible, and will have you skibbling over to your nearest bookshop for a copy of the book. Sorry, two. One for your six-year-old, and one for yourself. Eloise transcends all barriers, including age.
Eloise by Kay Thompson, with drawings by Hilary Knight, is published by Simon and Schuster at £12.99 in UK
Katie Donovan is an Irish Times journalist