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Woody Dean #1
A School Camp Fire
- GenresSchool Stories
335 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1917
7 people want to read
About the author
Elsie J. Oxenham
117 books23 followersA celebrated English girls’ school story writer, Elsie J. Oxenham's was born Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley in 1880 in Southport, Lancashire, She was the daughter of writer John_Oxenham, born William John Dunkerley, who had chosen the pseudonym ‘John Oxenham’. And Elsie decided to adopt the same surname for her writing career.
Her father was a clear influence upon her own writing. Her brother, Roderic Dunkerley, was also an author (published under his own name), as was her sister Erica, who also used the 'Oxenham' name.
She grew up in Ealing, West London, where her family had moved when she was a baby, living there until 1922, when the family moved again, to Worthing. After the deaths of her parents, Oxenham lived with her sister Maida. She died in 1960.
Oxenham, whose interests included the Camp Fire movement, and English Folk Dance traditions, is primarily remembered as the creator of the 38-book 'Abbey Girls' series. In her lifetime she had 87 titles published, and another two have since been published by her niece, who discovered the manuscripts in the early 1990s.
She is considered a major figure among girls' school story writers of the first half of the 20th century -- one of the 'Big Three,' together with Elinor Brent-Dyer and Dorita Fairlie Bruce.
Her father was a clear influence upon her own writing. Her brother, Roderic Dunkerley, was also an author (published under his own name), as was her sister Erica, who also used the 'Oxenham' name.
She grew up in Ealing, West London, where her family had moved when she was a baby, living there until 1922, when the family moved again, to Worthing. After the deaths of her parents, Oxenham lived with her sister Maida. She died in 1960.
Oxenham, whose interests included the Camp Fire movement, and English Folk Dance traditions, is primarily remembered as the creator of the 38-book 'Abbey Girls' series. In her lifetime she had 87 titles published, and another two have since been published by her niece, who discovered the manuscripts in the early 1990s.
She is considered a major figure among girls' school story writers of the first half of the 20th century -- one of the 'Big Three,' together with Elinor Brent-Dyer and Dorita Fairlie Bruce.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 23, 2018
The latest read for the NZ Abbey Girls Lower North Island Group.
This is a fairly early book for EJO (1917) and one that is somewhat disjointed. It is really four stories that are connected with each other (the last three more so that the first one). Their quality varies, although all have well drawn characters, if not always satisfying plots.
This book was written at the time the author had become part of the Camp Fire Girls of America movement within the UK (so they may have dropped the "of Amercia" part). It was something I had never heard about before, and I did some online research when we read The School of Ups and Downs, which is actually a loose sequel to this books - ie totally different characters, but essentially the same school and similar themes.
Mostly, this book exists for EJO to enthusiastically tell all her readers about Camp Fire and how wonderful it is. She manages to do this in the guise of a story, but the two sections where this is the focus do read less well I think, because the story is subject to the information dump rather than the opposite.
This isn't a bad book, but it isn't one of her best either.
This is a fairly early book for EJO (1917) and one that is somewhat disjointed. It is really four stories that are connected with each other (the last three more so that the first one). Their quality varies, although all have well drawn characters, if not always satisfying plots.
This book was written at the time the author had become part of the Camp Fire Girls of America movement within the UK (so they may have dropped the "of Amercia" part). It was something I had never heard about before, and I did some online research when we read The School of Ups and Downs, which is actually a loose sequel to this books - ie totally different characters, but essentially the same school and similar themes.
Mostly, this book exists for EJO to enthusiastically tell all her readers about Camp Fire and how wonderful it is. She manages to do this in the guise of a story, but the two sections where this is the focus do read less well I think, because the story is subject to the information dump rather than the opposite.
This isn't a bad book, but it isn't one of her best either.
April 22, 2020
I struggled to get into the book, but once I had I read it quite quickly. And enjoyed the descriptions of the camp fire. I know understand more, in relation to when camp fire meetings are mentioned in other EJO books
December 30, 2022
It is interesting to see how English schoolgirls interpreted the Camp Fire Girls program in the early twentieth century. Also, it is refreshing to see girls for whom honor is a major concern.
October 31, 2018
Entranced right from the start - I loved the perfect summer on the moors and all the gorgeous depictions of nature!
September 8, 2018
The first campfire was on the Yorkshire moors, where Priscilla took Kathleen and Dorothy Ann for a picnic, and they couldn’t even boil an egg. Then came the campfires at school, where secrets were uncovered, new names were taken, and new ideas shared. By the time of the final campfire, everything had changed...
This book falls into several connected sections. The first centres on Priscilla, one of EJO’s strong teenage heroines, whose isolated life at a fever hospital on the Yorkshire moors has made her an independent, outdoors girl who is also thoughtful and kind - like Joy and Joan Shirley fused into one.
The story of how Priscilla’s family problems are resolved and her world broadens, occupies the first section of the book, and it looks as if the theme of how shy Priscilla with her lack of self-confidence finds friends and a place at school will occupy the rest of the book. But the school is disrupted by the arrival of four American sisters, who bring EJO’s favourite girls’ organisation, the Camp Fire, and all its ways and ethos to the school, and this becomes the dominant theme of the rest of the book. Connecting these themes are the two schoolgirls who are Priscilla’s first friends, who have problems of their own to work out, including a classic ‘in honour bound...’ misunderstanding whose resolution forms the climax of the book.
After the strong introduction to Priscilla, it’s a shame that she fades out, but otherwise the different elements do cohere very naturally. Just as The Abbey Girls Go Back to School conveys EJO’s discovery of the English Folk Dancing society, and the impact of its community and ethos on her, this book shows her discovery of Camp Fire - her delight in its symbolism and poetry, but also in its American vigour and disruption of staid English middle-class conventions. Definitely an essential read for EJO fans and a strong early book in spite of its flaws.
This book falls into several connected sections. The first centres on Priscilla, one of EJO’s strong teenage heroines, whose isolated life at a fever hospital on the Yorkshire moors has made her an independent, outdoors girl who is also thoughtful and kind - like Joy and Joan Shirley fused into one.
The story of how Priscilla’s family problems are resolved and her world broadens, occupies the first section of the book, and it looks as if the theme of how shy Priscilla with her lack of self-confidence finds friends and a place at school will occupy the rest of the book. But the school is disrupted by the arrival of four American sisters, who bring EJO’s favourite girls’ organisation, the Camp Fire, and all its ways and ethos to the school, and this becomes the dominant theme of the rest of the book. Connecting these themes are the two schoolgirls who are Priscilla’s first friends, who have problems of their own to work out, including a classic ‘in honour bound...’ misunderstanding whose resolution forms the climax of the book.
After the strong introduction to Priscilla, it’s a shame that she fades out, but otherwise the different elements do cohere very naturally. Just as The Abbey Girls Go Back to School conveys EJO’s discovery of the English Folk Dancing society, and the impact of its community and ethos on her, this book shows her discovery of Camp Fire - her delight in its symbolism and poetry, but also in its American vigour and disruption of staid English middle-class conventions. Definitely an essential read for EJO fans and a strong early book in spite of its flaws.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews