Brings to life with humour and charm 'Miss Read's view of life in the countryside of the past. Born into a home where food and clothing were hard-earned, where oil and candles were luxuries, Miss Clare--retired village schoolmistress and devoted countrywoman--looks back on a richly rewarding life.

"After a long winter of red noses and wet mittens, summer is a welcome time for Miss Read and her village friends. 'Summer at Fairacre' charmingly recounts this bright, bustling season and the problems and possiblities that unfold against the background of roses, skylarks, and bees. Joseph Coggs finds a temporary home in the schoolhouse while his mother is in the hospital. Miss Read's friend, Amy, mysteriously disappears. Perhaps most difficult of...

In an English village whose inhabitants cherish virtues and manners considered antiquated elsewhere, Miss Read, the school's headmistress, prepares for an early retirement because of ill health. On the positive side, a suitor appears. With artwork.

A stranger's arrival in the village stirs up ripples of speculation and interest. The village finds itself paying tribute to the stranger's hero, a missionary born and bred in Thrush Green, and the stranger's presence alters the romantic prospects of Miss Dimity Dean.

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...

VILLAGE CENTENARY welcomes us back to Miss Read's cozy downland village just in time for the one hundredth anniversary of Fairacre School. Miss Clare, who was a pupil and later a teacher there, points out that such a centenary should be celebrated, and all of Fairacre is quick to offer suggestions -- from a tea party to a full-scale pageant. Deciding how best to stage the grand occasion, however, is only of Miss Read's problems. The ancient skylight...

Chronicle paths of two schoolteachers.

While Fairacre's new commuter lifestyle causes a sharp decline in enrollment at Miss Read's school, Miss Read focuses her attention on the ill health of her old friend, Dolly Clare.