Fairacre Series by Miss Read
Fairacre #8
Mrs. Pringle of Fairacre
Miss Read
Product DescriptionThrough the eyes of many Fairacre friends, we trace Mrs. Pringle’s life and her stormy standing as the redoubtable cleaner of the town’s school. However maddening she is, life at Fairacre would be poorer without her. About the AuthorMiss Read is the pseudonym of Mrs. Dora Saint, a former schoolteacher beloved for her novels of English rural life, especially those set in the fictional villages of Thrush Green and Fairacre. The first of these, Village School, was published in 1955, and Miss Read continued to write until her retirement in 1996. In the 1998, she was awarded an MBE, or Member of the Order of the British Empire, for her services to literature. She lives in Berkshire.
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Fairacre #19
Farewell to Fairacre
Miss Read
From Publishers WeeklyIn the latest-and possibly final-installment of the chronicles of the English village of Fairacre and its tiny school, the pseudonymous author and narrator Miss Read (Changes at Fairacre) begins the academic year anticipating few surprises. Two relatively minor but frightening strokes, however, force the stalwart headmistress to consider, and eventually opt for, early retirement. In the course of her final, lovingly described year at Fairacre school, Miss Read carries on her amiable feud with the school's grouchy cleaner, fends off marriage proposals from a handsome newcomer to town, keeps a watchful eye on the courtship of a newly widowed friend and continues her involvement in the pleasing minutiae of village life. Though Miss Read acknowledges the existence of the contemporary world, the village and its school remain resolutely old-fashioned: "More worldly children need videos and computers, but in Fairacre, we still enjoy pencils and paper, I am glad to say." Sensible, well read and acutely observant, the delightfully prim Miss Read continues to be very good company indeed. Line drawings. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn the finale to a series that began with Village School (1955), Miss Read's long teaching career in Fairacre is brought to a satisfactory close. This quintessential "gentle read" chronicles Miss Read's decision to retire as schoolmistress after a series of small strokes. Readers are also brought up-to-date on the lives of other inhabitants of the village who have appeared in scores of previous books: Mrs. Pringle, Miss Read's bullying cleaning lady; the newly widowed Henry Mawne; the Willet family; and her old friends Amy, Vicar Gerald Partridge and his wife, the Umbleditches, and the Annetts. Miss Read must also decide whether to resist the attentions of a handsome newcomer with a romantic interest in her. As soothing and warm as a cup of Earl Grey tea, this book will delight fans and newcomers to the series alike.Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, SeattleCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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