The Nelson Lee Library series of books was established in 1915, featuring Nelson Lee the detective, and his young assistant Nipper. Edwy Searles Brooks submitted his first story to the series in September 1915, and by 1917 was writing all of the stories in the series. In July 1917, Brooks was commissioned to write a spin-off series, The Nelson Lee School Story Library, for which he created the fictional English school St. Frank's.
Numbers 140-150 (published weekly from 29 January, 1929) in this latter series are set in Australia, and follow the adventures of the school cricket team who have traveled there to compete. Although it is not set in Australia, number 140 is about the team's setting out for Australia. Number 141 is about the stop-over in South Africa and the need to find alternative transport to Adelaide.
'We start off for Australia in this grand opening yarn of a new adventure series.' (Cover note)
Contains the first parts of two serialised stories about the schoolmaster-detective, Nelson Lee.
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929The second instalment of the adventures of the St Frank's school chums on their trip to Australia. When the School Ship makes a brief stop in Durban Harbour, South Africa, the boys help Nelson Lee, the 'famous schoolmaster-detective', to rescue a stranded airman, discover the mystery of Vanhoek's ostrich farm, and capture train bandits. A small group of the boys has to find an alternative mode of travel to Adelaide.
Also includes an article on the cricket test matches between England and Australia, and letter from the author to his readers.
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929In this continuation of the St. Frank's series, the boys arrive in Australia, learn about Aboriginal culture, are held up by bushrangers and capture Ned Kelly.
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929Nelson Lee and the St. Frank's boys head out to rescue Archie from bushrangers. Archie manages to escape, but gets lost in the bush. Finally all are reunited in a hum of excitement about the rescue and the upcoming Adelaide Test Match.
Also includes a short prose piece about fast bowlers, including renowned cricketers, Freeman, Gregory and Larwood.
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929'The School Ship arrives at Port Adelaide with the remainder of the St. Frank's boys. Aided by a misprint in the newspaper, they play their first cricket match in front of a Test Match crowd.
'Also contains a letter from the author to his readers, and a report on the consequences for the Ashes, since England has won the first three Test Matches. The author considers that 'Don Bradman...looks like becoming one of Australia's most brilliant batsmen' (p.42).
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929Edward Oswald Handforth (Handy) makes a fool of himself but manages to collect the autographs of the Australian Test Match team in Adelaide.
Unfortunately, all does not bode well for the boys when they head towards Queensland. They talk Handy out of staying on a cattle station, encounter yet another criminal, suffer a bus crash, and are stranded in the outback.
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929Nelson Lee, Nipper, and the boys are stranded in 'the Australian wilds' (3). They encounter prickly pear and 'wild' Aboriginals, only to discover that the prickly pear prohibits their journey out of the bush, and the Aboriginal men are willing workers of a mysterious station master.
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929'Once a stranger enters the valley of the mysterious "white master," he is never allowed to go out again' (3).
While Dorrie sets out from Sydney to locate the missing boys, the St. Frank's chums discover that the valley is filled with gold, and that the 'white master' is actually the estranged father of Clapson, one of their group. Reunited with his son, Clapson has a renewed sense of living and allows the St. Frank's boys to depart, just in time to meet up with Dorrie and his rescue party.
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929The exciteable Edward Oswald Handsforth (Handy), however, accidentally knocks a lever in the cockpit of a plane and some of the boys find themselves unexpectedly in the air! Nelson Lee, Lord Dorrimore (Dorrie) and Mr. Manners take off in another plane to try to bring them back to the ground. Dorrie makes an impressive leap from a rescue plane and takes over the controls, but not before the boys have flown all the way to Mount Buffalo in Victoria. Handy makes a further error in inviting a chalet busboy to join them on their trip to the Test Match in Melbourne. Another hectic journey for the St. Frank's chums.
London : Amalgamated Press , 1929