Showing results by author "Miss Read" in All Categories

Summer at Fairacre charmingly recounts this bright, bustling season and the problems and possibilities that unfold against the backdrop 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. And, perhaps most difficult of all, Mrs. Pringle, the grumpy school cleaner, is unable to work because of her ‘bad leg’.

A mouse's appearance on Christmas Eve in a widow's bedroom leads to a chance encounter with a small boy. In 'No Holly for Miss Quinn'. And Miss Quinn's preparations for Christmas are made more difficult when her brother's children come to stay.

From the rural festivities in 'Village Christmas' to the poignant tale of a white robin, these two stories demonstrate the wry wit and light touch of Miss Read. Two heartwarming and wonderfully festive listens.

After the death of Emily Davis, school teacher and well-loved member of the local community, many of those who knew her cast their minds back to days past and to their memories of Emily. Dolly Clare mourns her loss deeply but remembers with joy and warmth the long friendship they shared. She is joined in her reminiscences by Jane Draper, who started her teaching career under Emily’s guidance, and by those further afield - from London to America.

The people of Fairacre are up in arms about the possible closure of the village school. This anxious time for Miss Read is made bearable by the support of all her friends and neighbours.

Mrs Pringle, the lugubrious school cleaner, has always been a favourite character in the Fairacre series. Here we trace Maud Pringle's life from childhood visits to the village from her Caxley home.

Those who have come to love Miss Read's delightfully humorous novels of country life will be enraptured by these two autobiographical volumes, affectionate and unashamedly nostalgic accounts of her childhood. In A Fortunate Grandchild, Miss Read draws on her gentle and colourful memories of Grandma Read in Lewisham and Grandma Shafe in Walton-on-the-Naze, and their rambling, flock-wallpapered houses full of nooks and forbidden adult mysteries, which provided young Dora with a bedrock of security in the uncertain days of the Great War.

From an unexpected visitor on Christmas Eve in "The Christmas Mouse" to an unwanted change of plan in "No Holly For Miss Quinn", Miss Read recounts some of the most memorable Christmas events where often, despite best-laid plans, things do not always go as expected.For heart-warming reading there is no writer to rival Miss Read, and this charming collection of Christmas tales is packed with unforgettable characters, enchanting stories and festive cheer.

"No matter how devoted, dedicated, conscientious and altogether noble a teacher is, I feel pretty sure that each and everyone feels the same sense of freedom and relief from her chains when the end of term arrives...." So it is for Miss Read - but on the very first day of the long summer holiday she falls and breaks her arm. Instantly, all her plans for the holidays are in tatters. But Miss Read's friend, Amy, comes up with a plan: and so it is that the two of them leave Fairacre for the island of Crete.

From an unusual weight-losing recipe found in an old notebook - and used with alarming consequences - to the queen of copy-cats who drives her neighbour mad with anger, Over The Gate is a hugely entertaining collection of tales from Fairacre, past and present.

The two-hundred-year-old cottages known as Tyler’s Row, with charming leaded-glass windows and an arched thorn hedge over the gateway, are supposed to provide a haven of peace for their new owners, Peter and Diana Hale.

The first charming Caxley tale introduces the deep-rooted camaraderie between Septimus Howard, a calm and controlled man, and Bender North, a confident, successful but gruff ironmonger. Their argumentative sides often clash, displaying moments of fury and forgiveness with wonderful tenderness. Theirs is a friendship that survives misunderstandings, the tragedy of war, and the bitterness of loss. The story of their families continues through the generations. Read by June Barrie.

Illegal battering of gingernuts and conkers in a murky corner of the playground; a procession of bearers of lost property interrupting the telling of the story of Joseph; justice being firmly done on three malefactors who stole Mr Henry's eggs... Here are 40 delightful stories about life as a village schoolteacher, set against the changing seasons of the countryside.

In Village Diary, Miss Read describes the people of Fairacre with exactitude, a sense of comedy, and sharp observation. In addition to those characters familiar to readers of Village School, there are newcomers, including dictatorial Amy, an old college friend; Mr Mawne, whom the village sees as a possible husband for the unwilling Miss Read; and the earnest new infants teacher.

On a bright summer's day, old Miss Clare, now retired from teaching, awaits the visit of her oldest friend, Emily Davis. In between, she recalls the events in their 70-year friendship and country life in England during that time.

Anna Lacey had spent most of her 20 years on her Essex farm. Her doting parents, rural friends and country childhood had not prepared her for the shock of relocation to a raw new neighbourhood for her first year as a teacher. But Anna was gifted with the abilities to make friends and to learn as she taught.

The Howards of Caxley begins on a fine May morning in the fateful year of 1939, and then follows the path of the two families and the little town through the Second World War, towards hope for happier times ahead.

A weight-losing recipe sends a portly Victorian housemaid literally sky-high. Mrs Next-Door, the queen of copycats, drives her patient neighbour mad with rage; the tragic tale of the ghost of Fairacre; the touch-and-go romance of Elsie Parker. In Over the Gate, Miss Read, the village schoolmistress, continues to remember odd incidents and excellent stories and to retell them with characteristic grace and compassion.

The arrival of a stranger in the village of Thrush Green stirs up ripples of speculation and interest. Not only does the village find itself paying tribute to this stranger's hero (a missionary born and bred in Thrush Green) but his presence has a dramatic affect on Miss Dimity Dean's romantic prospects.

Miss Read heard about the sale of Tyler's Row from the always well-informed Mrs Pringle - and before long Fairacre was alive with rumours. Why were the present owners selling?