Miss Read

Dorothy Watson and Agnes Fogerty have taught at the school for as long as anyone can remember, but now they're thinking and talking about retirement. It won't be an easy adjustment....

The villagers of Thrush Green celebrate Christmas traditionally, in a way that has hardly changed over the generations. But not everything is as peaceful as it seems....

Nestled in the heart of the Cotswolds, Thrush Green is normally a peaceful place....

As spring begins at Thrush Green, a series of local dramas takes hold of the community....

On a blustery day in Fairacre, Miss Clare sees two strangers "pacing slowly, side by side, along the edge of Hundred Acre Field, which lay on the other side of Miss Clare's garden hedge....

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....

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....

Summer at Fairacre charmingly recounts this bright, bustling season and the problems and possibilities that unfold against the backdrop of roses, skylarks and bees....

Fairacre is a village of cottages....

Fairacre is a village of cottages, a church and the school, and at the heart of the school, its head mistress, Miss Read....

From organising the school summer fete to the sometimes rather odd passions of childhood, Miss Read captures the essence of rural life as only she can....

The first charming Caxley tale introduces the deep-rooted camaraderie between Septimus Howard....

Having enjoyed robust health throughout her career, Miss Read, the village schoolmistress at Fairacre, is looking forward to an energetic retirement in a few years' time.....

The village schoolmistress, Miss Read, greets retirement with excitement, and settles down to endless lazy days, but her idyll is interrupted....

Over The Gate is a hugely entertaining collection of tales from Fairacre, past and present....

Charles Henstock, vicar of Thrush Green, is living in his new vicarage after the old one burned down. In its place are eight retirement homes, but there’s heated debate in the village about the new residents....

It's the May Day holiday, and a fair has come to the village of Thrush Green. The residents of Thrush Green all have their own views about the fair....

The Cotswold village of Thrush Green is a particularly close-knit community, where many of the inhabitants have known each other since childhood....

The end of the school year often brings unmitigated rapture for schoolteachers, and so it should for Miss Read....

‘As I have been given a large and magnificent diary for Christmas... I intend to fill it in as long as my ardour lasts.’ Luckily, Miss Read’s ardour lasts all year, encompassing every aspect of Fairacre life....