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The Abbey Girls - Elsie Oxenham
This novel is a love affair with English folk dance and a Cistercian abbey.
The abbey of the title is based on Cleeve Abbey in Somerset - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleeve_Abbey and the writer's love of the abbey and her knowledge of the architecture shines through.
Joan and her cousin Joy live in the abbey where Joan's mother has a job guiding tourists who come to visit. They moved there after Joan's father died and they found themselves in much reduced circumstances. It's worth noting that in the period the book is set, the leaving age for state education was 14 (and would have been 12 at the time of the first book in the series). Not being able to afford education after that age is a genuine problem for these characters.
Plenty of dancing in this book, my favourite is a lovely scene of Joan and Joy dancing together in the cloister garth. (the grass area that the cloisters surround).
There is a plot, but fortunately it's pretty light.
I enjoyed this book for the details of the abbey, the dancing and the likeable characters. It's a gentle read, and none the worse for that.
There's a difficult decision for Joan - and, in keeping with this series, it is shown as being difficult. She knows the choice she has to make, and is determined to make it, but that doesn't stop it hurting.
This is definitely one of the better books in the 'Abbey' series.
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I agree that it's one of the better books, even if Jen, who is one of my favourite characters, isn't there yet: it combines the Abbey background, the May Queen and dancing, and a real 'school story' backbone which waxed and waned a lot as the series went on and the characters grew up.
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