Corners bumped. Spine slightly faded.
The New Abbey Girls is no 13 in the reading order of the Abbey series. This is the title which introduces Rosamund and Maidlin, as they come to live with the family at the Abbey, and it is to the trials and adventures of the younger members that this story is mainly devoted. But we meet Madam and the Pixie again, and there is plenty of folk-dancing.
Ann Mackie-Hunter has written an introductory article on folk-dancing, and it is this article which led Ju Gosling to do some research and set up the Canning Town Folk project, which included a conference on 2nd October 2010 where the work of EJO and the Pixie was celebrated, along with Maud Karpeles, ‘the Little Page’.
Adrianne Fitzpatrick has written a fascinating article, From Rags to Ritches, something which features much in Elsie Oxenham’s books, and particularly in The New Abbey Girls. The publishing history by Clarissa Cridland shows a range of reprints, but interestingly The New Abbey Girls was never published in a Seagull edition. If you only have the Children’s Press edition from the 1960s that is very badly cut.
