The abominables - Eva Ibbotson

A hundred years ago, in the Himalayan peaks of Nanvi Dar, the daughter
of an English earl is kidnapped by a huge hairy monster.
In
a secret valley Agatha Farley is introduced to a family of motherless
yetis and devotes her life to their upbringing.
She teaches
them to speak, tells them stories and insists on polite manners.
But as the decades pass, tourists come to the mountains, a hotel
is built and yeti-hunters arrive.
Agatha knows that there is
one place in the world where they would be protected - her ancestral
home at Farley Towers.
When a
boy and his sister stumble upon
her hidden valley, she knows she has found the courageous people
who will carry out her plan.
The excited yetis are smuggled into the bridal suite at the hotel.
A freezer lorry is waiting to put them into semi-hibernation on
the long trip home.
But the baby yak that has fallen in love with
the youngest yeti foils the refrigeration plan and they set off
on a hugely entertaining road trip half way across the world.
In
the Sultan of Aslerfan's kingdom the yetis release all the animals
from his zoo.
In the Alps they rescue a lost child in a blizzard.
In Spain, the yak creates chaos at a bullfight. But when
they arrive in England, a terrible shock awaits them at Farley
Towers...
This early novel, never submitted for publication, contains all the
trademark qualities that made Eva's subsequent books so successful;
comedy, loveable and eccentric characters, perfectly-crafted
plotting, and inspiring themes of tolerance, kindness to animals,
and the defeat of cruelty.