Orem Library

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.

Miss Read's charming Thrush Green series continues with Friends at Thrush Green. There had been general dismay when Miss Watson and Miss Fogerty retired to Barton-on-the-Sea after many years of devoted service teaching the children of Thrush Green, so their visit to see old friends in the village brings great pleasure. The new headmaster, Alan Lester, is cautiously accepted, but rumor is rife about his wife's health.

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...

"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...

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.

Miss Read, whose real name is Dora Jessie Saint, has been producing these delightful novels of English village life since 1956. On the first day of the summer holidays Miss Read plunges literally into the end of term, by falling downstairs and breaking her arm and twisting her ankle. Her old friend Amy Garfield insists on taking her on holiday to the idyllic island of Crete. The two women, so dissimilar but united in friendship, have time to assess...

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...

Miss Read's fans will be delighted to spend another fine spring in the charming village of Thrush Green. Joan and Edward Young are content in their honey-colored Cotswold stone house, which every-one agrees is the prettiest in the village. But the day comes when Joan's father returns to the house in which he grew up, and the Youngs' tranquility is ruffled by change. There are other small disturbances as well. That formidable woman Ella Bembridge has...