The Exiles

by Hilary McKay

Published 21 March 1991
Nothing ever happens in the conroy family, and when something finally does, the four sisters----Ruth, Naomi, Rachel and Phoebe---are sent to stay with their grandmother for the summer. This sounds like a recipe for disaster: Big Grandma gives orders like a drill sergeant and she keeps no books in the house.

The sisters certainly are'nt going to put up with big Grandma's regimen of plenty of fresh air and chores. But in their quest for alternative entertainment, they start to understand the appeal of the life their grandmother has chosen---and she starts to understand them. Are the two generations more alike than they think?


The Exiles at Home

by Hilary McKay

Published 11 November 1993
When Ruth Conroy decides to sponsor a child in Africa, she is unprepared for the difficulties involved in finding GBP10 a month. So she enlists the help of her sisters - Phoebe, Naomi and Rachel - who are only too eager to dream up hare-brained fund-raising schemes ...Undisciplined baby-sitters, unhygienic caterers or fraudulent pavement artists, their hilarious projects never fail to cause chaos and mayhem.