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A05_Secrets of the Abbey

April 26, 2020 By allisonmthompson Leave a Comment

secrets 2

Published in 1939, A05_Secrets of the Abbey takes place in May and June of l917, Abbey time. Joan and Joy Shirley are eighteen—they apparently have left Miss Macey’s school, although this is not explicitly stated. The story has two main components—discovering what happened to lay-brother Ambrose and his love Lady Jehane after the dissolution of the Abbey, and Jen Robin’s hard but valiant choice [Read more…]

Filed Under: Abbey Girls, Elsie J. Oxenham, English Folk Dance Tagged With: Cecil Sharp, English folk dance, Rufty Tufty, Sweet Kate

A04_Schooldays at the Abbey

April 19, 2020 By allisonmthompson 1 Comment

schooldaysWith A04_Schooldays at the Abbey, published by Collins in 1938, we begin the cluster of nine books known as the “Retrospective Titles.” They fall after A03_Girls of the Abbey School (1921) and the order resumes again in publication time with A11_The Abbey Girls Go Back to School (1922). The nine retrospective titles were published between 1938 and 1957, three years before Oxenham’s death. They feature younger girls [Read more…]

Filed Under: Abbey Girls, Elsie J. Oxenham, English Folk Dance Tagged With: Cecil Sharp, English folk dance, May Queen, Maypole Dancing, Morris Dance

A03_The Girls of the Abbey School

April 12, 2020 By allisonmthompson Leave a Comment

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A03_The Girls of the Abbey School introduces the important character of Janet (Jen) Robins, who will go on to become one of the strongest exemplars of the “Abbey spirit” of helpfulness and good will. Published in 1921, a year after Oxenham attended the 1920 Vacation School where presumably she discovered, as the Abbey Girls themselves will soon, how wrongly she had been dancing, the book contains a lot of dancing. It is dedicated “To those members of the English Folk Dance Society [Read more…]

Filed Under: Abbey Girls, Elsie J. Oxenham, English Folk Dance Tagged With: Cecil Sharp, Elsie J. Oxenham, English folk dance, May Queen, Morris Dance

A02_The Abbey Girls

March 29, 2020 By allisonmthompson Leave a Comment

abbey girls

After A01_Girls of the Hamlet Club, Elsie Oxenham published eight books, many dealing with the Camp Fire movement, before returning to Miss Macey’s school and establishing the true beginning of the story of the girls who live in the Abbey of Gracedieu.  A02_The Abbey Girls was published in 1920 but is set two years after Cicely’s story, running from February through May 1916 in “Abbey Time.” There is no mention of the War.  
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Abbey Girls, Elsie J. Oxenham Tagged With: Abbey Girls, Cecil Sharp, Elsie J. Oxenham, English folk dance, May Day, May Queen, Maypole Dancing, Morris Dance

First Generation, Retrospective, Second Generation, Connectors, and “Abbey Time”

March 22, 2020 By allisonmthompson Leave a Comment

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Elsie J. Oxenham’s fictional universe is a large and complicated one, and in the Abbey Girls’ world time moves slowly. Oxenham wrote more than 87 novels and numerous short stories, and she had multiple publishers. While there are some stand-alone novels, she tended to write series novels [Read more…]

Filed Under: Abbey Girls, Elsie J. Oxenham Tagged With: Elsie J. Oxenham, English folk dance, May Queen

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