Books with author Elsie Jeanette Oxenham

Joy's twins Elizabeth and Margaret are growing up to be a little spoiled and self-centred. At school they are chosen as Queens of the hamlet club and they learn to be responsible and to think of others first. Littlejan Fraser (Marigold) returns as a senior cookery student and lives at the Hall with the twins. Rosalind Kane (aka nanta Rose) gets married at Kentisbury, the twins and Jansy are bridesmaids.In the school for well-off young ladies there is a sweet tradition of crowning a schoolgirl queen on May Day and she takes the name of a flower and wears a colourful dress. Thus begins the premise of this last and final installment of the Abbey Series.

Another sparkling Elsie J. Oxenham story! Secrets of the Abbey brings back many old friends - Jandy Mac, Jen, Joy, and the others. The thrilling adventures here are concerned with the mysterious figure of the long-dead Brother Ambrose, and the secret of Jandy's map. Girls will be able to enjoy the life at Abbey School so skillfully described by one of the most enduringly popular of all girls' story writers.

The Colquhoun family had suffered a great loss when Mrs. Colquhoun died. Peggy, who was eighteen at the time, and the eldest daughter, returned from boarding school to play the role of mother. Shortly afterwards their father also died and they were left in a very serious financial position. To economise was absolutely necessary; but how were they to do it? It was decided that they should live in a cottage on a small island which luckily was their own property. Read this intriguing story for yourself, which is Elsie Oxenham at the top of her form, and share the fun and adventures of this courageous little family.

A celebrated English girls’ school story writer, Elsie J. Oxenham's real name was Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley. Born in 1880 in Southport, Lancashire, she was the daughter of writer William John Dunkerley, whose chosen pseudonym - ‘John Oxenham’ - was a clear influence upon her own. Her brother, Roderic Dunkerley, was also an author (published under his own name), as was her sister Erica, who used the 'Oxenham' name as well. Oxenham grew up in Ealing, West London, where her family had moved when she was a baby, living there until 1922, when the family moved again, to Worthing. After the deaths of her parents, Oxenham lived with her sister Maida. She died in 1960.Oxenham, whose interests included the Camp Fire movement, and English Folk Dance traditions, is primarily remembered as the creator of the 38-book Abbey Girls series. Tomboys at the Abbey is the 10th book and very typical of what one expects from this series.