REVIEW: Schooldays at the Abbey
Sep. 13th, 2017 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllSchooldays at the Abbey: Elsie J. Oxenham Collins 1949 (although there’s an inscription from 1956 on it)
A lot happens in this book. Because of diphtheria, the school, or the boarding element of it comes to stay at Abinger Hall. Jenny-Wren has only just arrived at the school, in time to see Joan crowned May Queen, and the two girls, who love the Abbey, find out even more stories about its past. Given the strong bond of understanding between thirteen year old Jen and the older Joan (and Jen’s ‘marriage’ with contemporary best friend ‘Jacky-boy’, Jacqueline) you would never guess that Jen and Joy will be the mainstays of the series and become as good as sisters.
But the story of ‘Schooldays at the Abbey’ mainly revolves around Jandy Mac (she of the rhyming ‘Jandy Mac Comes Back’). Unfortunately, I didn’t like her much. I found her bumptious and forceful, so I wanted someone to say ‘no’ to her for once, but even Joy caves!
It is one thing to be fascinated by the Hall and Abbey, because your now deceased guardian talked to you about them, but Jandy gatecrashed the May Crowning of the Hamlet Club’s Queen. She continues to gatecrash, eventually becoming one of those characters who return to Miss Macey’s school, after technically leaving school. This is presented as a positive step for the school, as Jandy’s sporting skills are a boon, and she’s a good, or another good influence on Jen. But she’s closer to being grown-up than she realised when she begged Miss Macey to take her on (for about half a summer term, or less) because, despite Scottish heritage, she really, really loved England and wanted to hang out with schoolgirls. On a visit to Scotland, she meets a male cousin who makes her think more purposefully about her future.
Jandy Mac is really Janice Macdonald, aged 17, from Australia, and visiting Britain with an aunt. Her father died (conveniently) before she was born, and her mother died when she was two, but the man who would have married her mother had she not died a week before the planned wedding day adopted Jandy. And her Uncle Tony’s surname was Abinger. He died at sea recently.
Jandy Mac takes it upon herself not to tell the Shirleys about this connection when she goes to visit the Abbey (and wheedles her way into seeing the Hall), not even when she learns about their story – how Joy has only just had the Hall and Joan the Abbey.
Jandy’s rationale is because she’s afraid she might come across as staking her claim as Tony’s heiress to Abinger Hall (like Joy’s mother, he was not in his father’s good books). She raises a lot of convoluted ‘if this had happened’ conjectures that could have meant that Jandy could have inherited both Hall and Abbey. Then they become plot points, which cause Jandy much angst about what her lawyers will get up to, as she has become friends with the Abbey girls, most especially Joan, and also Jen. With Joy, they make up something of a convenient quartette for investigations.
I couldn’t get over the fact that this meant that Jandy was with-holding information about Joy’s uncle and mother from Joy, who was also motherless. The story rather glosses over this. But it all works out, in rather contrived fashion (relatives fall ill most usefully.) The iterative talking thing is present and correct. Miss Macey’s soft spot for the Shirleys is most obvious.
On the other hand, Jandy and Jen falling in love with and learning country dancing through the Hamlet Club, makes dancing, what it means and the characters’ feelings for it come alive in a way that isn’t always the case in the Abbey girls books.
According to ‘The World of Elsie Jeanette Oxenham and Her Books’, this is chronologically the fourth book in the series, but was first published ten years after ‘The Girls of the Abbey School’ (and I’m wondering whether it wouldn’t be more accurate to say that there’s some overlap between the books.) So, it’s one of the inset books.
A lot happens in this book. Because of diphtheria, the school, or the boarding element of it comes to stay at Abinger Hall. Jenny-Wren has only just arrived at the school, in time to see Joan crowned May Queen, and the two girls, who love the Abbey, find out even more stories about its past. Given the strong bond of understanding between thirteen year old Jen and the older Joan (and Jen’s ‘marriage’ with contemporary best friend ‘Jacky-boy’, Jacqueline) you would never guess that Jen and Joy will be the mainstays of the series and become as good as sisters.
But the story of ‘Schooldays at the Abbey’ mainly revolves around Jandy Mac (she of the rhyming ‘Jandy Mac Comes Back’). Unfortunately, I didn’t like her much. I found her bumptious and forceful, so I wanted someone to say ‘no’ to her for once, but even Joy caves!
It is one thing to be fascinated by the Hall and Abbey, because your now deceased guardian talked to you about them, but Jandy gatecrashed the May Crowning of the Hamlet Club’s Queen. She continues to gatecrash, eventually becoming one of those characters who return to Miss Macey’s school, after technically leaving school. This is presented as a positive step for the school, as Jandy’s sporting skills are a boon, and she’s a good, or another good influence on Jen. But she’s closer to being grown-up than she realised when she begged Miss Macey to take her on (for about half a summer term, or less) because, despite Scottish heritage, she really, really loved England and wanted to hang out with schoolgirls. On a visit to Scotland, she meets a male cousin who makes her think more purposefully about her future.
Jandy Mac is really Janice Macdonald, aged 17, from Australia, and visiting Britain with an aunt. Her father died (conveniently) before she was born, and her mother died when she was two, but the man who would have married her mother had she not died a week before the planned wedding day adopted Jandy. And her Uncle Tony’s surname was Abinger. He died at sea recently.
Jandy Mac takes it upon herself not to tell the Shirleys about this connection when she goes to visit the Abbey (and wheedles her way into seeing the Hall), not even when she learns about their story – how Joy has only just had the Hall and Joan the Abbey.
Jandy’s rationale is because she’s afraid she might come across as staking her claim as Tony’s heiress to Abinger Hall (like Joy’s mother, he was not in his father’s good books). She raises a lot of convoluted ‘if this had happened’ conjectures that could have meant that Jandy could have inherited both Hall and Abbey. Then they become plot points, which cause Jandy much angst about what her lawyers will get up to, as she has become friends with the Abbey girls, most especially Joan, and also Jen. With Joy, they make up something of a convenient quartette for investigations.
I couldn’t get over the fact that this meant that Jandy was with-holding information about Joy’s uncle and mother from Joy, who was also motherless. The story rather glosses over this. But it all works out, in rather contrived fashion (relatives fall ill most usefully.) The iterative talking thing is present and correct. Miss Macey’s soft spot for the Shirleys is most obvious.
On the other hand, Jandy and Jen falling in love with and learning country dancing through the Hamlet Club, makes dancing, what it means and the characters’ feelings for it come alive in a way that isn’t always the case in the Abbey girls books.
According to ‘The World of Elsie Jeanette Oxenham and Her Books’, this is chronologically the fourth book in the series, but was first published ten years after ‘The Girls of the Abbey School’ (and I’m wondering whether it wouldn’t be more accurate to say that there’s some overlap between the books.) So, it’s one of the inset books.
