A great start!, 14 Mar 2004
If you are just discovering Miss Read,this book makes a great start.It's her first three books about Miss Read, headmistress of Fairacre Village school.(In case,you don't know,the author's real name is Dora Saint.Miss Read is a nom de plume.)
I went to a village school just like this one,and my mother told me that these stories were featured on "Woman's Hour"on the radio as the same time as I started school,so I have always felt a special affinity for these lovely stories.
Based on the author's own experiences of living and teaching in a small village,these books really bring Fairacre and its inhabitants to life,and you soon get to know them intimately,just like a real village.Ihave read these over and over again,and every time I pick up one of her books it's like meeting old friends again.

A great start!, 14 Mar 2004
If you are just discovering Miss Read,this book makes a great start.It's her first three books about Miss Read, headmistress of Fairacre Village school.(In case,you don't know,the author's real name is Dora Saint.Miss Read is a nom de plume.)
I went to a village school just like this one,and my mother told me that these stories were featured on "Woman's Hour"on the radio as the same time as I started school,so I have always felt a special affinity for these lovely stories.
Based on the author's own experiences of living and teaching in a small village,these books really bring Fairacre and its inhabitants to life,and you soon get to know them intimately,just like a real village.Ihave read these over and over again,and every time I pick up one of her books it's like meeting old friends again.

An exciting Thrush Green story!, 15 Mar 2004
If you know Thrush Green,you'll know it to be a nice quiet village where not a lot happens,but this story is actually very exciting,because there's a big fire!Don't worry,I won't spoil it by telling you where,and nobody gets hurt,but it is very important for Thrush Green and its inhabitants,as it will bring a lot of changes to the village.
As usual,great illustrations by John Goodall really bring the story to life.

A great start!, 14 Mar 2004
If you are just discovering Miss Read,this book makes a great start.It's her first three books about Miss Read, headmistress of Fairacre Village school.(In case,you don't know,the author's real name is Dora Saint.Miss Read is a nom de plume.)
I went to a village school just like this one,and my mother told me that these stories were featured on "Woman's Hour"on the radio as the same time as I started school,so I have always felt a special affinity for these lovely stories.
Based on the author's own experiences of living and teaching in a small village,these books really bring Fairacre and its inhabitants to life,and you soon get to know them intimately,just like a real village.Ihave read these over and over again,and every time I pick up one of her books it's like meeting old friends again.

An exciting Thrush Green story!, 15 Mar 2004
If you know Thrush Green,you'll know it to be a nice quiet village where not a lot happens,but this story is actually very exciting,because there's a big fire!Don't worry,I won't spoil it by telling you where,and nobody gets hurt,but it is very important for Thrush Green and its inhabitants,as it will bring a lot of changes to the village.
As usual,great illustrations by John Goodall really bring the story to life.

A bygone time that brings 1950's village life alive., 20 Jul 2008
Miss Read, is an unmarried head-teacher in a small village school. The two classrooms at Fairacre School take all the village children from age five until they are eleven. There is no running water in either the school or the schoolhouse where Miss Read lives, and toilets for the school children, consists of a wooden seat on a large bucket. For the villagers of Fairacre, busses run three times a week to the nearby market town.
Things may sound rather desperate in Fairacre when compared to our modern lives, where kids expect the newest fashions and expensive gismos, and we as adults expect to jump in a car and drive to the nearest supermarket to buy a weeks shopping.
For me however 1950's Fairacre brings back a lot of memories of being educated in a village school in Britain during the early 1970's. When Miss Read describes the ecclesiastical architecture of the school with its arched windows letting in light but at the same time being too high off the ground to see out of. I just close my eyes and I am instantly transported to my schoolroom when I was seven years old. I can still smell the polish from the wood floor and the soap in the cloakroom where our coats and satchels hung on pegs with our little towels and homemade "Dap Bags" containing our footwear for PE.
Miss Read is a keen observer of village life, nature, and the changing seasons. The village school life unfolds with gentle humour and insightful social commentary. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys social comedy. Some of the children who feature in this book go on to be lifelike characters in later books. Joseph Coggs is my favourite of the children who announces at the end of his first day in the "babies class"; that the toys and the clay were fun, but his favourite bit was dinner time.
With Village School you enter a bygone time that brings 1950's village life alive.


Old Bagarama!, 10 Jul 2007
At first sight it was all too easy for me to dimiss these novels as 'cotton wool head' fodder. On the other hand, once I had read one, I felt compelled to read them all. At the end of a crazy day I find that reading Miss Read is a healthy, albeit guilt-ridden, alternative to Mogadon. I love the slow pace, the importance put on seemingly minor everyday subjects and the time taken out to just stop and reflect.

Would I admit this to my Ibiza-going, uber-cool partying friends? Are you kidding?! av it!!

Easy read , 07 Mar 2007
Nice easy old fashioned read. The Miss Julia series by Ann B Ross have a similar feel (in a more contemporary setting) and are more engaging.

A great start!, 14 Mar 2004
If you are just discovering Miss Read,this book makes a great start.It's her first three books about Miss Read, headmistress of Fairacre Village school.(In case,you don't know,the author's real name is Dora Saint.Miss Read is a nom de plume.)
I went to a village school just like this one,and my mother told me that these stories were featured on "Woman's Hour"on the radio as the same time as I started school,so I have always felt a special affinity for these lovely stories.
Based on the author's own experiences of living and teaching in a small village,these books really bring Fairacre and its inhabitants to life,and you soon get to know them intimately,just like a real village.Ihave read these over and over again,and every time I pick up one of her books it's like meeting old friends again.

An exciting Thrush Green story!, 15 Mar 2004
If you know Thrush Green,you'll know it to be a nice quiet village where not a lot happens,but this story is actually very exciting,because there's a big fire!Don't worry,I won't spoil it by telling you where,and nobody gets hurt,but it is very important for Thrush Green and its inhabitants,as it will bring a lot of changes to the village.
As usual,great illustrations by John Goodall really bring the story to life.

A bygone time that brings 1950's village life alive., 20 Jul 2008
Miss Read, is an unmarried head-teacher in a small village school. The two classrooms at Fairacre School take all the village children from age five until they are eleven. There is no running water in either the school or the schoolhouse where Miss Read lives, and toilets for the school children, consists of a wooden seat on a large bucket. For the villagers of Fairacre, busses run three times a week to the nearby market town.
Things may sound rather desperate in Fairacre when compared to our modern lives, where kids expect the newest fashions and expensive gismos, and we as adults expect to jump in a car and drive to the nearest supermarket to buy a weeks shopping.
For me however 1950's Fairacre brings back a lot of memories of being educated in a village school in Britain during the early 1970's. When Miss Read describes the ecclesiastical architecture of the school with its arched windows letting in light but at the same time being too high off the ground to see out of. I just close my eyes and I am instantly transported to my schoolroom when I was seven years old. I can still smell the polish from the wood floor and the soap in the cloakroom where our coats and satchels hung on pegs with our little towels and homemade "Dap Bags" containing our footwear for PE.
Miss Read is a keen observer of village life, nature, and the changing seasons. The village school life unfolds with gentle humour and insightful social commentary. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys social comedy. Some of the children who feature in this book go on to be lifelike characters in later books. Joseph Coggs is my favourite of the children who announces at the end of his first day in the "babies class"; that the toys and the clay were fun, but his favourite bit was dinner time.
With Village School you enter a bygone time that brings 1950's village life alive.


Old Bagarama!, 10 Jul 2007
At first sight it was all too easy for me to dimiss these novels as 'cotton wool head' fodder. On the other hand, once I had read one, I felt compelled to read them all. At the end of a crazy day I find that reading Miss Read is a healthy, albeit guilt-ridden, alternative to Mogadon. I love the slow pace, the importance put on seemingly minor everyday subjects and the time taken out to just stop and reflect.

Would I admit this to my Ibiza-going, uber-cool partying friends? Are you kidding?! av it!!

Easy read , 07 Mar 2007
Nice easy old fashioned read. The Miss Julia series by Ann B Ross have a similar feel (in a more contemporary setting) and are more engaging.

Mrs Pringle, 30 May 2007
This book does not fit strictly into the chronolgical sequence of Fairacre books, but consists of a series of stories about her, giving some interesting biographical details along the way. We hear about the very first encounter of the new headmistress with Mrs P, told, of course, from the perspective of Miss Read.
It's a lovely little book,the perfect companion to a nice cup of tea and a choccy biscuit (or a Pimm's if it's summer)!

A great start!, 14 Mar 2004
If you are just discovering Miss Read,this book makes a great start.It's her first three books about Miss Read, headmistress of Fairacre Village school.(In case,you don't know,the author's real name is Dora Saint.Miss Read is a nom de plume.)
I went to a village school just like this one,and my mother told me that these stories were featured on "Woman's Hour"on the radio as the same time as I started school,so I have always felt a special affinity for these lovely stories.
Based on the author's own experiences of living and teaching in a small village,these books really bring Fairacre and its inhabitants to life,and you soon get to know them intimately,just like a real village.Ihave read these over and over again,and every time I pick up one of her books it's like meeting old friends again.

An exciting Thrush Green story!, 15 Mar 2004
If you know Thrush Green,you'll know it to be a nice quiet village where not a lot happens,but this story is actually very exciting,because there's a big fire!Don't worry,I won't spoil it by telling you where,and nobody gets hurt,but it is very important for Thrush Green and its inhabitants,as it will bring a lot of changes to the village.
As usual,great illustrations by John Goodall really bring the story to life.

A bygone time that brings 1950's village life alive., 20 Jul 2008
Miss Read, is an unmarried head-teacher in a small village school. The two classrooms at Fairacre School take all the village children from age five until they are eleven. There is no running water in either the school or the schoolhouse where Miss Read lives, and toilets for the school children, consists of a wooden seat on a large bucket. For the villagers of Fairacre, busses run three times a week to the nearby market town.
Things may sound rather desperate in Fairacre when compared to our modern lives, where kids expect the newest fashions and expensive gismos, and we as adults expect to jump in a car and drive to the nearest supermarket to buy a weeks shopping.
For me however 1950's Fairacre brings back a lot of memories of being educated in a village school in Britain during the early 1970's. When Miss Read describes the ecclesiastical architecture of the school with its arched windows letting in light but at the same time being too high off the ground to see out of. I just close my eyes and I am instantly transported to my schoolroom when I was seven years old. I can still smell the polish from the wood floor and the soap in the cloakroom where our coats and satchels hung on pegs with our little towels and homemade "Dap Bags" containing our footwear for PE.
Miss Read is a keen observer of village life, nature, and the changing seasons. The village school life unfolds with gentle humour and insightful social commentary. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys social comedy. Some of the children who feature in this book go on to be lifelike characters in later books. Joseph Coggs is my favourite of the children who announces at the end of his first day in the "babies class"; that the toys and the clay were fun, but his favourite bit was dinner time.
With Village School you enter a bygone time that brings 1950's village life alive.


Old Bagarama!, 10 Jul 2007
At first sight it was all too easy for me to dimiss these novels as 'cotton wool head' fodder. On the other hand, once I had read one, I felt compelled to read them all. At the end of a crazy day I find that reading Miss Read is a healthy, albeit guilt-ridden, alternative to Mogadon. I love the slow pace, the importance put on seemingly minor everyday subjects and the time taken out to just stop and reflect.

Would I admit this to my Ibiza-going, uber-cool partying friends? Are you kidding?! av it!!

Easy read , 07 Mar 2007
Nice easy old fashioned read. The Miss Julia series by Ann B Ross have a similar feel (in a more contemporary setting) and are more engaging.

Mrs Pringle, 30 May 2007
This book does not fit strictly into the chronolgical sequence of Fairacre books, but consists of a series of stories about her, giving some interesting biographical details along the way. We hear about the very first encounter of the new headmistress with Mrs P, told, of course, from the perspective of Miss Read.
It's a lovely little book,the perfect companion to a nice cup of tea and a choccy biscuit (or a Pimm's if it's summer)!

Unusual stories, 14 Jan 2003
Not quite what we usually expect from Miss Read,this collection of Fairacre short stories are sometimes comic(Mrs Pringle's Christmas Pudding) sad (The Wayfarer) or strange but true (you'll see what I mean).
They're all interesting and well-told,and the illustrations by JS Goodall are a joy.

A great start!, 14 Mar 2004
If you are just discovering Miss Read,this book makes a great start.It's her first three books about Miss Read, headmistress of Fairacre Village school.(In case,you don't know,the author's real name is Dora Saint.Miss Read is a nom de plume.)
I went to a village school just like this one,and my mother told me that these stories were featured on "Woman's Hour"on the radio as the same time as I started school,so I have always felt a special affinity for these lovely stories.
Based on the author's own experiences of living and teaching in a small village,these books really bring Fairacre and its inhabitants to life,and you soon get to know them intimately,just like a real village.Ihave read these over and over again,and every time I pick up one of her books it's like meeting old friends again.

An exciting Thrush Green story!, 15 Mar 2004
If you know Thrush Green,you'll know it to be a nice quiet village where not a lot happens,but this story is actually very exciting,because there's a big fire!Don't worry,I won't spoil it by telling you where,and nobody gets hurt,but it is very important for Thrush Green and its inhabitants,as it will bring a lot of changes to the village.
As usual,great illustrations by John Goodall really bring the story to life.

A bygone time that brings 1950's village life alive., 20 Jul 2008
Miss Read, is an unmarried head-teacher in a small village school. The two classrooms at Fairacre School take all the village children from age five until they are eleven. There is no running water in either the school or the schoolhouse where Miss Read lives, and toilets for the school children, consists of a wooden seat on a large bucket. For the villagers of Fairacre, busses run three times a week to the nearby market town.
Things may sound rather desperate in Fairacre when compared to our modern lives, where kids expect the newest fashions and expensive gismos, and we as adults expect to jump in a car and drive to the nearest supermarket to buy a weeks shopping.
For me however 1950's Fairacre brings back a lot of memories of being educated in a village school in Britain during the early 1970's. When Miss Read describes the ecclesiastical architecture of the school with its arched windows letting in light but at the same time being too high off the ground to see out of. I just close my eyes and I am instantly transported to my schoolroom when I was seven years old. I can still smell the polish from the wood floor and the soap in the cloakroom where our coats and satchels hung on pegs with our little towels and homemade "Dap Bags" containing our footwear for PE.
Miss Read is a keen observer of village life, nature, and the changing seasons. The village school life unfolds with gentle humour and insightful social commentary. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys social comedy. Some of the children who feature in this book go on to be lifelike characters in later books. Joseph Coggs is my favourite of the children who announces at the end of his first day in the "babies class"; that the toys and the clay were fun, but his favourite bit was dinner time.
With Village School you enter a bygone time that brings 1950's village life alive.


Old Bagarama!, 10 Jul 2007
At first sight it was all too easy for me to dimiss these novels as 'cotton wool head' fodder. On the other hand, once I had read one, I felt compelled to read them all. At the end of a crazy day I find that reading Miss Read is a healthy, albeit guilt-ridden, alternative to Mogadon. I love the slow pace, the importance put on seemingly minor everyday subjects and the time taken out to just stop and reflect.

Would I admit this to my Ibiza-going, uber-cool partying friends? Are you kidding?! av it!!

Easy read , 07 Mar 2007
Nice easy old fashioned read. The Miss Julia series by Ann B Ross have a similar feel (in a more contemporary setting) and are more engaging.

Mrs Pringle, 30 May 2007
This book does not fit strictly into the chronolgical sequence of Fairacre books, but consists of a series of stories about her, giving some interesting biographical details along the way. We hear about the very first encounter of the new headmistress with Mrs P, told, of course, from the perspective of Miss Read.
It's a lovely little book,the perfect companion to a nice cup of tea and a choccy biscuit (or a Pimm's if it's summer)!

Unusual stories, 14 Jan 2003
Not quite what we usually expect from Miss Read,this collection of Fairacre short stories are sometimes comic(Mrs Pringle's Christmas Pudding) sad (The Wayfarer) or strange but true (you'll see what I mean).
They're all interesting and well-told,and the illustrations by JS Goodall are a joy.

Great story - very emotional, 25 Mar 2008
This book is an attention-grabbing story. It is claimed to be a true story but I do not really believe that because it just does not feel real at all. I really enjoyed this book a lot and would rate it 9/ 10. It is just exceptional and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who loves cats or maybe has one that passed away. It is about a family, (the author's probably, since it is in first person), who have had many cats but, unfortunately they all die; so the family pledge not to get another cat. Will that change when they meet Tiggy, a mother of six adorable kittens. Find out in this book...