February Book Report: In Praise of Miss Read

On the first day of this month, I woke up early and as I lay in the darkness I remembered to say “white rabbit, white rabbit” before I got out of bed.  I won’t say that I expected good luck to join me for the month, though I did hope as much.  Alas, that is not how the day played out.

Most of my plans for February were set aside so that I could fly West and spend time with my family, and especially take time with my mom.  To look after my own heart, I turned to my favorite Miss Read books, Changes in Fairacre and Thrush Green.  These series are beloved favorites for me, stories that I have read again and again.  I find friendship and familiarity in the lives of the characters who live in these imaginary places.  

Changes in Fairacre takes place just past the midpoint of the Fairacre series and is full of reminders about the comforts still to be found amidst the fragility of life.  As Miss Read settles into the cottage she has inherited after the death of her dear friend Dolly Clare, she remembers her with a sweet fondness, and determines to move forward to enjoy life.  It was a message that was especially timely for me this month.

Thrush Green is the first of the Thrush Green series and I first read it in the Summer of 2006, a very hard time for me.  That year, the book was a great comfort.  When I reread it now, it’s both a comfort and a reminder of how strong I can be when the need arises.

These familiar novels were the backbone of my reading this month.  They were both companion and comfort as I thought about my Dad and the fragility of life.  Being strong when it’s called for is my superpower.  In my favorite books, I find the strength that I need to see me through the hard parts of life.

July Book Report: Mrs. Griffin Sends Her Love

I first discovered Miss Read books in 2006, a very hard year in my life.  I saw a description of two Miss Read books in the Bas Bleu book catalog and took a chance on these two stories —- the first two books in the Thrush Green series, published in 1959 and 1961, respectively .

I loved the books at once and was best pleased (to use a Miss Read phrase) to discover that there were many more to be read, both in the Thrush Green collection and also a whole other series about a town on the English Downs named Fairacre.

These books and the stories within them were both my salvation in that year and a source of great joy to me since I first read them.  In theory, books set in mid-20th century rural England had almost nothing in common with my life as a 21st century single mama living in the the suburbs.  In fact, they proved timeless and reminded me to enjoy the small pleasures in life - a cup of tea, the vexing pleasure of abundant garden produce, the chirp of the birds on a Spring morning, the day in February when there is still a bit of sunlight to be had after 5 pm, the couch of Fall leaves on a cool morning, the first blooms of the coming Spring….really the list is endless.

Dora Saint, the writer behind the Miss Read books, passed away in 2012, at the age of 101.  This means that though her stories live on (and are among my favorite re-reads), there are no new works to be sought. Or that was the case until recently, when Orion Publishing released a collection of essays and small compositions that were the first Dora Saint works; all bits published in English newspapers and magazines that weren’t published in the United States.

New Miss Read! 

I bought a copy straight away and set it in my to-be-read pile with a great deal of excitement.  The book has light editing and commentary by Dora Saint’s daughter, Jill Saint, and re-productions of many of the illustrations from the original Miss Read books.  

At just over 300 pages, it was a splendid treat to spy in my book pile as the worst days of the pandemic raged on here in my corner of the world.  I read the introduction and back cover endlessly, but I saved the book itself to read after school was out.  Though I am typically the sort of voracious reader who gobbles up a good book in just a few days, I treated myself to just a little bit each day, so as to enjoy my treat just a little bit longer.

The volume ends with some classroom vignettes from the early drafting of the Fair Acre books.  Though Miss Read preferred the stories of her Thrush Green books (a fact I discovered in this volume),  the Fair Acre stories are my favorites.  Written in first person by the schoolteacher herself, whom Saint describes as a woman who, “…was born fully clothed in sensible garments and aged about forty,” they connect with me in ways too numerous to explain.

Ahhh, Miss Read.  Always practical and with a sentimental heart that never turns maudlin, she loves her students for the children they are, with practical affection and a tolerant patience that I both admire and seek to achieve.  This collection was a balm for my anxieties and a reminder of the joy to be found in the simple pleasures of life, like a good book to be read on the front porch come some happy Summer morning.

November Book Report: Over the Gate

On Instagram, I follow a handful of book readers, among them a group calling itself #missreadalong.  It’s a group that loves Miss Read books as much as I do and for some months of the year, the group reads a particular Miss Read book.  This November, the pick was Miss Read’s Over the Gate and of course I participated.

I’ve read this book before, but these days that is rather the point of a Miss Read book for me.  I’ve been reading them since 2006 and in every way, they have been comforting and happy reads.  The stories, which are unfailingly rooted in the joys and frustrations of everyday life, offer companionship and comfort.

There are two series in the Miss Read collection:  Fairacre and Thrush Green.  Each represents its own tiny universe of characters with amusing foibles of their own.  I love them both because of the way they are populated by very human people.  The Fairacre series is narrated by the wry Miss Read, the head teacher at the Fairacre school, a woman whose heart is kind without being sappy.  

The stories were written as a series and, as time passed, author Dora Saint filled in gaps in the collections, sometimes with stories of the characters who populate the books.  That is the case with Over the Gate, a collection of stories about Fairacre.

Nothing big ever happens in Fairacre and that is the charm of the stories - they are about daily life.  In Miss Read’s evocative descriptions of the everyday, there is always grace to be found.  When I need that grace I return to the stories, reading and re-reading them as often as I please.  That’s happy!

August Book Report: Miss Read

I’ve written before about how much I love Miss Read’s books.  Over the years, both the Thrush Green and Fair Acre series have provided me hours of happiness and companionship.  I love these books, the characters in them, and the feelings and sentiments they describe and nurture.  

I read a lot of books in August but in the middle of the month, as I got closer and closer to moving JT to college, it was the Miss Read books to which I turned.  I re-read a handful from the Fair Acre series, aware that they would provide a familiar and pleasing comfort and while I rode the roller coaster of emotions involved in sending JT to college.

True to form, the familiar stories made me laugh and provided happy comfort, a reminder that lives are made of many moments.  My favorite books are just this kind of story, an entry into a another world; one that feels comforting and comfortable with characters who are companions that linger well past the final chapter of the story.

That’s happy!

Nest Repairs

In one of the Miss Read Fairacre books, Miss Read discovers that some local sparrows have made a nest on the roof over her front door.  At first she is charmed and then Mr. Willet, the local handyman, points out that the birds may use her front step as their toilet.  He volunteers to remove the nest to aid in relocation but Miss Read refuses, worried that the birds won’t find their nest.  Mr. Willet shakes his head at her kind heart and Miss Read ruefully begins to use the back door, so as not to bother the birds.

I thought of this story when I noticed a pair of birds making their nest in my roofline, having snuck under the eve where a piece of the trim siding had come off during a wild storm.   In the immediate aftermath of that storm, I had made a few calls for someone to replace the broken piece.   Homes in my corner of New Jersey had far more damage than that and I could never get a firm hold on a repair and so the problem lingered for far longer than it should have.  

Then a pair of birds tucked under the trim and built their nest along my roofline.  I’m not as kind as Miss Read and feared birds in the roof may be followed by squirrels in the attic so I doubled down on my efforts to get the trim repaired.  That happened over Spring Break.  For a few days, the birds perched on the roofline, unable to get inside.  In my guilt, I averted my eyes.  They’ve since found a new location for their nest and I have the satisfaction of a tidy new piece of trim.

That’s happy!

June 30 Book Report: All Thrush Green, All the Time

I ended the month of May by reading Thrush Green, the first book in Miss Read’s series about an imaginary Cotswold neighborhood.  The stories feature the towns and residents of Thrush Green, Lulling, and Nidden.  They are about the pleasures and challenges of everyday life and are full of both humor and wisdom about the human condition.  I first read the books in 2006 and every few years I return to the series to pick up a few of the books.  In June, while my house was in upheaval and I was visiting colleges with JT, it seemed like a very good idea to once again spend some time with these very familiar friends.

There are twelve books in the series and I’ve spent the month of June making my way through them, enjoying the familiar comforts of these old friends and the luxury of time enough to read every book in the collection.  They remind me to smile and laugh, to admire the seasons, to live in the here-and-now, and to appreciate the comforts of the most simple pleasures in life.  From loved ones and cups of tea to a well-polished window and a bloom in my garden, these books remind me of all my blessings.  Thrush Green is the world and people at their best, a most welcome place to spend my time.

12 Months of Miss Read: August

The backstory: At the start of 2016, I pulled out my very favorite Miss Read book, Village Centenary.  The novel is structured in months and each chapter explores a month in the year of a village school that is celebrating its 100^th anniversary.  This year, my own school is celebrating its 250^th anniversary and as we think of our past and look to our future, I thought that Miss Read would make a lovely companion for me.  For each month of 2016, I plan to read Miss Read’s reflection on the month.

Miss Read is a pseudonym for Dora Jessie Saint, an English author who wrote between 1955 and 1996.  Her novels were tales of every day life in small English towns.  Village Centenary is set in Fair Acre, an imaginary Cotswold community.  As is the case in nearly all of the Fair Acre novels, the novel is written in the first person and it is through our narrator, school teacher Miss Read, that the story unfolds.

August with Miss Read

By August, Miss Read is enjoying her summer break.  She fits in some overdue chores, works in her garden, and plans time away from home.  That’s a month a great deal like my own.  As the close of August approaches, Miss Read sees signs of the coming fall on her outdoor walks.  I read of this cooling weather with some envy, as we’ve had a sweltering hot August.  But yesterday brought an afternoon rainstorm and with the rain came cooler weather and an easing of the humidity.  When I walked out to the porch this morning, it was refreshing and lovely, with a cool morning and a breeze on the wind.

As August bends past its halfway point, my preparations for school fill my days.  I’m not ready to give up the leisurely mornings (or the flip flops!) but there is comfort in the return to our school routines.  Miss Read, who also begins school in September, certainly understands how it feels.  

I like the fact that Miss Read and I are on the same trajectory in the month of August.  In so many ways, this character is a companion to me.  We share a strong sense of the school as the center of a community of people who care about one another.  She looks for happiness and finds it.  She's content and not afraid to feel that way.  She unfailingly reminds me to stop and mark the passage of time and honor its meaning in my corner of the world.  

Fair Acre Cottage

The final cottage in my fairy garden collection reminds me of the house Miss Read comes to call home in the Fair Acre series of novels.  It’s a small thatched-roof cottage tucked in the woods on the edge of the downs.  Miss Read’s small house is left to left to her by her dear friend Dolly Clare and is much-beloved because of its origins.  Mine is a perfectly-sized starter fairy home.

I’ve named it Fair Acre Cottage after the novels, which are among my most favorite books ever.  These days, making a visit to the fairy garden brings me the relaxation and happiness that the novels bring.

That’s happy!