Miss Read

Two favorite villagers make a life-changing decision. The School at Thrush Green returns readers to the heart of the Cotswolds just as beloved primary school teachers Dorothy Watson and Agnes Fogerty announce their retirement and make plans to leave Thrush Green and buy a new home at Barton-on-Sea. The village people are aflutter with the news, musing about the teachers' replacements, the fate of the schoolhouse, and an appropriate farewell gift....

Tullivers, the former home of old Admiral Trigg and his sister Lucy, had stood empty for many months. Then, one bright April day, two newcomers move in -- an attractive young woman and her son -- and the villagers begin to show their interest and attention, especially several bachelors.

Miss Read's charming chronicles of small-town life have achieved an almost legendary popularity worldwide by offering a welcome return to a gentler time and "wit, humor, and wisdom in equal measure." This volume introduces Thrush Green, the neighboring village to Fairacre: its blackthorn bushes, thatch-roofed cottages, enchanting landscape, and jumble sales. Readers will delight in a new cast of characters and also welcome familiar faces as they become...

In Affairs at Thrush Green, Miss Read continues the fortunes of the Thrush Green families whom we last met in Gossip from Thrush Green. Here we follow the kindly vicar, Charles Henstock, to the neighboring Lulling, after his home was burned to the ground at the end of the earlier novel. Going to a new church is never easy, even in the best of times; indeed, poor Dr. Henstock encounters some very redoubtable females in Lulling. A full-scale power struggle...

Throughout her years as schoolmistress, Miss Read has gathered excellent accounts of the rich and varied history of her beloved country village, often through neighborly conversation over the gate. Fairacre has garnered its share of odd incidents, entertaining episodes, and village folklore, from an unusual recipe for weight loss found in an old notebook-and used with alarming consequences-to the tragic story of the village ghost. With characteristic...

The first novel in the beloved Fairacre series, Village School introduces us to the remarkable schoolmistress Miss Read and her lovable group of students, who, with a mixture of skinned knees and smiles, are just as likely to lose themselves as their mittens... Welcome to the English village of Fairacre: a handful of thatch-roofed cottages, a church, the school, the promise of fair weather, friendly faces, and good cheer——at least most of the...