Ab(bey) Fab

This week's Tots to Teens is about Elsie J. Oxenham's Abbey books. In the column I mention having transcripts of some of the books and invite interested parties to email me if they want to try an Abbey!

Here are the titles I own in transrcipt:

The Abbey Girls in Town

The Abbey Girls on Trial

Rosamund's Victory

Patch and a Pawn

The Abbey Girls

The Abbey Girls Again

Abbey Champion

Biddy's Secret

Damaris at Dorothy's

Joy's New Adventure

Maidlin Bears the Torch

Margery Meets the Roses

Peggy and the Brotherhood

Rosamind's Tuckshop

Tots to Teens

Star Mag

28th January 2007

Elsie J Oxenham's Abbey series is No Small Comfort

I STARTED re-reading my Abbey books last week and now I can't stop. There are 45 of them, but I have only a baker's dozen, plus 14 transcripts, which I have yet to read! How delicious to think that I have all those stories to look for ward to!

The Abbey books were written by Elsie J. Oxenham and are mostly out of print. The only way new fans can read them is to borrow them from a library (no such luck in Malaysia) or from someone with the books. Sometimes, some kind soul scans what they have and emails it to the less fortunate (that would be me!)

I belong to Girlsown, a mailing list which discusses girls boarding school stories and other girl-centric books, and another list that talks about Abbey books only. Through them, I've met many generous Abbey fans who have sent me their transcripts.

If you like stories about girls, and series with recurring characters who grow older and develop with each book, Oxenham's Abbey books may be worth checking out. For those who have never heard of the series, it's about a group of girls who live near Gracedieu, a ruined abbey in Oxfordshire. In the centre of the story is the Hamlet Club, which does country dancing, and crowns a May Queen every year.

While the first Abbey book, The Girls of the Hamlet Club, is about how the club is founded, the second book, The Abbey Girls , introduces the reader to the red-headed cousins Joan and Joy Shirley who go on be pivotal characters in the series.

Most of the main characters are in their tweens or early teens when they first appear in the books and by the series' end they have teenage children of their own! I love the character development. Also, the fact that the characters' personal lives, hopes, fears and dreams drive the books' plots make for compelling reading. After a couple of books following courtships, marriages and births, I am hooked, pulled into the world of the Abbey. It's quite similar to how one becomes addicted to a soap opera and deeply involved in the lives of its characters, to the extent that one starts talking about them as though they were real!

But truth be told, the rarified world of the Abbey girls is attractive because it is quite unlike the one I live in. These girls marry titled gentlemen (one of them becomes a countess) and live in large country houses (the countess lives in a castle), playing ladies bountiful by bequeathing scholarships to poor but deserving (read: musically talented) souls; adopting motherless heiresses; and giving penniless but genteel lasses lessons in grammar and etiquette. Yes, it's all rather snobbish, but also, terribly, morbidly fascinating. The girls love meddling in people's affairs, but it has to be "suitable" and "nice" people. A working class wench with a squint would not interest them.

The Abbey series was written between 1914 and 1959 and so the ideas presented in them are quite old-fashioned. Several of the characters give up successful careers to become wives and mothers, and the belief that having a husband and children is the only route to total fulfillment is a firm Abbey belief. Those who don't give up their jobs remain unmarried and devoted to helping their married chums. And for the married ones who still work, their careers as mere hobbies, not to be taken very seriously.

It's enough to make any independent mother-with-a-job stamp her foot, and I do! I have written many irritable posts about how the Abbey girls are narrow-minded snobs who would probably refuse to speak to me on account of my ethnicity and accent! And yet, I continue to read the books and be entertained and … comforted! Yes, Abbey books are a great favourite with me when I am feeling down. I think this is because they are such a splendid form of escape, the forever-summer world of the peaceful Abbey in its fresh green garth acting like a refuge from real-world cares. Also, while the characters can be insufferably arrogant, they can also be loyal, kind and resourceful.

For more about the series and the author visit the Elsie Jeanette Oxenham website ( home.pacific.net.au/~bcooper/popular.htm).

Independent publisher Girls Gone By have re-published several Abbey books, but each costs about £ 10 – too much to risk on something totally new. You may find the odd Children's Press (abridged) or Collins edition at second hand bookshops and jumble sales, but you'd have more luck in Britain or Australia than in this part of the world.

Or, you could email me for a transcript or two. Check my blog for the list of transcripts I have and research the stories on the EJO site. I'm looking forward to making Abbey fans out of more Malaysians!   

Comments

[joseph2008]

The Abbey Girls (1920) is the second title of the series, and tells of two ... These two characters are the original 'Abbey Girls.
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Joseph
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[Angela Bourke]

Hi there, I've been reading Abbey books for years, my mother gave me 4 when I was younger and I read and re-read them, I then borrowed, stole and bought anything I could find, sometimes paying ridiculous prices, I now have about 15 but can't find anything else.

If I could possibly bother you for any transcripts of any of the following:

Rosamund's Victory

Patch and a Pawn

Abbey Champion

Biddy's Secret

Damaris at Dorothy's

Joy's New Adventure

Maidlin Bears the Torch

Margery Meets the Roses

Peggy and the Brotherhood

Rosamind's Tuckshop

I would be grateful, I understand it's a big ask so if you need a donation etc, please let me know.

Angela

[Angela Bourke]

Hi there, I've been reading Abbey books for years, my mother gave me 4 when I was younger and I read and re-read them, I then borrowed, stole and bought anything I could find, sometimes paying ridiculous prices, I now have about 15 but can't find anything else.

If I could possibly bother you for any transcripts of any of the following:

Rosamund's Victory

Patch and a Pawn

Abbey Champion

Biddy's Secret

Damaris at Dorothy's

Joy's New Adventure

Maidlin Bears the Torch

Margery Meets the Roses

Peggy and the Brotherhood

Rosamind's Tuckshop

I would be grateful, I understand it's a big ask so if you need a donation etc, please let me know.

Angela

[Sarah]

When my grandmother got married - perhaps 70 years ago - it was expected by her employer that she would give up her teaching job. Perhaps in the days the Abbey series was set, it wasn't unusual for anyone with a job to give it upon marriage. Also, in one of my books Joan and Joy were talking about the unfairness of having to give up work upon marriage (I think this was in Selma at the Abbey). Of course, these days there are so many reasons for people to carry on working, and probably many more aids such as automatic washing machines/tumble dryers, dishwashers, enthusiastic husbands etc or maybe just one of the above. Don't forget Joy did give the East End crippled children trips around London in her car for a while before her marriage.

[Pollyfan]

I'd love to get copies of some of the Abbeys that you have--I'd be only too happy to pay costs of copying, mailing etc. I also have some books that you don't have, and would be happy to "swap" reading copies.

[celuran]

Oh! this is late, i know, but i'd love to see a copy of Biddy's Secret! And if you want some more, I have word documents of almost all the others. Please email me! celuran at fastmail dot fm.
I feel the same way - that they're snobs, and have priorities totally different to mine or any one i know. And yet whenever I read one I feel better! I'm nowhere near Malaysia, or even my own home, but I found plenty on ebay. Some are ridiculously expensive, but others (the abridged ones, or the fill in ones) are often only five or six aussie dollars.

[Fulltime Mom]

hi, am interested in the abbey girls series and was wondering if i could get a copy of the transcript, whichever book, doesn't really matter, but one which might introduce me to the series would be good. How do I email you?