Kirjahaku

The well-loved residents of Thrush Green return in another slice of village life.

There are newcomers to the village of Thrush Green...

Nothing can be kept secret for long in Thrush Green...

Changes are afoot in the village of Fairacre...

Miss Read must face the future in another delightful slice of village life...

Miss Read looks forward to her retirement - but it doesn't go quite as planned...

It's spring in Thrush Green - but the new season brings far more than the villagers anticipate...

A celebration causes trouble in the village of Thrush Green...

An enchanting story of village life from the bestselling author of the FAIRACRE series.

Miss Read's future as headmistress hangs in the balance as the village school is threatened with closure.

The village school is a hundred years old and headmistress Miss Read is fully occupied planning the festivities.

After a long winter, summer is a welcome time for Miss Read and her village friends.

A brand new Miss Read novel, set in the Cotswold village of Thrush Green at Christmas.The villagers of Thrush Green celebrate Christmas traditionally, in a way that has hardly changed over the generations. Children eagerly hang up their stockings, families go to church together and everyone enjoys the treats of the festive season. And when it snows as the carol singers make their way round the cottages on the green, it looks as if Christmas will be perfect this year. But not everything is as peaceful as it seems.Phyllida and Frank have their work cut out for them when they agree to take on the Nativity play - made all the more difficult by an outbreak of chicken pox. The indomitable Ella has lived in Thrush Green for as long as anyone can remember, but lately she has been behaving strangely. Then there are the dreadful Burwells, newcomers to Thrush Green, who cause something of a stir with their 'home improvements'. For Nelly, owner of The Fuchsia Bush tea shop, Christmas is an especially busy time, with people dropping in for much-needed refreshment, weary from all their Christmas shopping. But then she receives an unexpected letter.

A nostalgic collection on rural schools, childhood and English country life from the much-loved author of VILLAGE SCHOOL.From organising the school summer fete...'Because of our inability to recognise our climatic shortcomings from the outset, arrangements for outdoor jollities get completely out of hand'....to the sometimes rather odd passions of childhood:'I collect stones with holes in them'.Miss Read captures the essence of rural life, and in particular of village schools, as only she can. This collection also includes extracts from her letters:'Michael Joseph wrote after the Observer thing and is throwing out feelers for a book. I shall know if he still feels like it - me too! - after we've met'.It will also include an Introduction on how 'Miss Read' was first created: 'Miss Read was born fully clothed in sensible garments and aged about forty. She was born, in fact, when I was struggling to write my first book and needed a village schoolmistress as the narrator.'

'I'm looking for two really trustworthy rabbits and six sensible clear-speaking frogs 'Young Anna Lacey has spent most of her life on a farm in Essex. But her first teaching position carries her to an unattractive, newly constructed suburb where she has to adjust to cramped lodgings, a skinflint landlady, overcrowded classrooms, and eccentric colleagues ('a rum lot'). She must also adapt some of her idealistic theories of teaching to the realities of her energetic, exuberant pupils.Fans of Miss Read's much-loved Thrush Green and Fairacre novels will be delighted with this tale of a young woman's first year of teaching, and perhaps also surprised by its sharp, funny portrayals of the foibles of human nature. Anna experiences some disappointments and uncertainties, but her practicality, determination and sense of humour see her through.This new edition of Fresh from the Country features an introduction by Jill Saint, the author's daughter.'A delightful book full of accurate detail about school life, the children who are taught and the people who teach.' Daily Telegraph