Spine and corners bumped.
Jen of the Abbey School is no 12 in the reading order of the Abbey series. Jen of the Abbey School was published in 1927 but goes back in time to fill in the gaps in Jen’s story. It tells the story of Jen at her Yorkshire home, and of her friendship with the girls of a boarding school on the hills near at hand. A new girl, Rhoda, comes to the school, and she and Jen find that their interest in folk-dancing leads them into many adventures, including the finding of a valuable old morris pipe, the rescue of a Basque fisherman, who is surprisingly found in the snow on the Yorkshire moors, and who proves to be the bringer of tidings which solve a mystery. And then there is the competition in which Jen’s village children and the school team are rivals … Did you know that parts of Jen had previously appeared in annuals, with slightly different text, and extra illustrations? Did you know that after its publication in book form it was then split into three and republished, with some additional text? The GGBP edition of Jen includes:
an introduction by Betula O’Neill explaining exactly how the book fits into the Abbey series, and how it connects with other titles (with plot summaries of those which are not easily found)
an article on the location by Ann Mackie-Hunter, with a map and fascinating historical details
the publishing history by Clarissa Cridland with some lovely pictures of early annuals
a colour frontispiece taken from an early annual which has much more in the picture than the variation reproduced in the original book
five sepia plates, three of which were never produced in the original book but which were in early annuals
numerous additional line drawings
the extra text, taken from one of the Rocklands books and included here in its proper place.
