Operation Seabird is the tenth book in the Romney Marsh series of novels by Monica Edwards

Monica Edwards

Monica Edwards was an English children's writer of the mid-twentieth century best known for her Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series of children's novels.-Early life:...

, published in 1957 by Collins

HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

. Tamzin and Rissa discover to their horror that many seabirds in the area are being killed by oil pollution. They form the Seabirds Rescue League and attempt to de-oil the unfortunate birds.

Although Operation Seabird was written four years after Storm Ahead

Storm Ahead

Storm Ahead is the seventh book in the Romney Marsh series of novels by Monica Edwards, published in 1953 by Collins. Lindsey Thornton, from Punchbowl Farm in Surrey, comes to stay at Westling with the Grey family. Almost immediately she is caught up in the worst gale the area has seen for many,...

it was the first title in the series to be set after that book because both No Entry

No Entry (novel)

No Entry is the eighth book in the Romney Marsh series of novels by Monica Edwards, published in 1954 by Collins. When several farms in the area contract foot-and-mouth disease and have to slaughter their herds, the Merrows at Castle Farm are determined to isolate the farm from all visitors so that...

and The Nightbird

The Nightbird (novel)

The Nightbird is the ninth book in the Romney Marsh series of novels by Monica Edwards, published in 1955 by Collins. Like The White Riders, this is another ‘haunting’ story in which the children attempt to scare off unwelcome intruders. This time it is the French fishing fleet who are poaching in...

were set before Storm Ahead

Storm Ahead

Storm Ahead is the seventh book in the Romney Marsh series of novels by Monica Edwards, published in 1953 by Collins. Lindsey Thornton, from Punchbowl Farm in Surrey, comes to stay at Westling with the Grey family. Almost immediately she is caught up in the worst gale the area has seen for many,...

.

The plot of Operation Seabird involves the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway is a gauge light railway in Kent, England. The line runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St...

. The children use the narrow-gauge railway to travel to Dymchurch

Dymchurch

Dymchurch is a village and civil parish in the Shepway District of Kent, England. The village is located on the coast five miles south-west of Hythe, and on the Romney Marsh. It is typical of this part of the coast, having been a village which became larger during the 1930s...

 in search of a wild-life expert who can tell them how to de-oil seabirds.

Blurb from First Edition

Monica Edwards' new novel is set, as are so many of her justly famous stories, on the Romney Marshes. Tamzin and Rissa discover to their horror that many seabirds in the district are dying because their wings become clogged with oil which floats on the sea. What are they to do? They form the Seabirds Rescue League and try to start a clinic to de-oil the birds. They range farther afield, and the adventures they encounter in their efforts to contact the experts almost distract them from the object of their quest. On one terrifying occasion, Meryon becomes, unwittingly, an engine driver. Operation Seabird, as Monica Edwards' many admirers will expect and new readers will warmly approve, is an exciting story, packed with action, yet it is based securely on real people coping with real problems.

Subsequent editions

• Children’s Book Club August - 1958
• New Portway (Chivers) - 1970
• Girls Gone By Publishers
  Girls Gone By Publishers
  Girls Gone By Publishers is a publishing company run by Clarissa Cridland and Ann Mackie-Hunter and is based in Bath, Somerset. They re-publish new editions of some of the most popular girls' fiction titles from the twentieth century.-Elinor Brent-Dyer:...
  
  reprint of original - 2007