Thrush Green Books
Miss Read's charming chronicles of small-town life have achieved an almost legendary popularity worldwide by offering a welcome return to a gentler time and "wit, humor, and wisdom in equal measure" (Cleveland Plain Dealer). This volume introduces Thrush Green, the neighboring village to Fairacre: its blackthorn bushes, thatch-roofed cottages, enchanting landscape, and jumble sales. Readers will delight in a new cast of characters and also welcome familiar faces as they become immersed in the village's turn of events on one pivotal day -- May Day. Before the day is over, life and love and perhaps eternity will touch the immemorial peace of the village.
In the follow-up to Thrush Green, the arrival of a stranger in the village stirs ripples of speculation and interest.
Tullivers, the former home of old Admiral Trigg and his sister Lucy, had stood empty for many months. Then, one bright April day, two newcomers move in -- an attractive young woman and her son -- and the villagers begin to show their interest and attention, especially several bachelors.
Feelings are running high in the Cotswold village of Thrush Green. The rector’s plan for the neglected churchyard doesn’t meet with universal approval; there is a clash of personalities at the local school; and someone has returned to the village after an absence of fifty years.
Miss Read's delightful chronicles of life in Thrush Green continue with RETURN TO THRUSH GREEN. It's spring again in the village, and with the change of the seasons comes change in the lives of many villagers. The Young family's tranquility is disrupted by the sudden arrival of Joan's father, while Molly and Ben Curdle consider putting an end to their wandering days in order to finally settle down. Even the reappearance of Sexton Albert Piggot -- one of Thrush Green's more malevolent sorts -- cannot dim the happiness that inevitably prevails at Thrush Green.
GOSSIP FROM THRUSH GREEN returns readers to the delightful English village, neighbor to Fairacre, for a golden summer. But this sleepy, pristine setting conceals a flurry of activity amongst the villagers. Rumor has it that Mr. Venables is considering retirement just as the village's teacher is about to make an important decision. Molly Curdle prepares for a new baby. The kindly vicar, Charles Henstock, works on his sermon -- quite unaware of the disaster that will overtake him. However, there is never any doubt that all will end well in this very English village.
In Affairs at Thrush Green, Miss Read continues the fortunes of the Thrush Green families whom we last met in Gossip from Thrush Green. Here we follow the kindly vicar, Charles Henstock, to the neighboring Lulling, after his home was burned to the ground at the end of the earlier novel. Going to a new church is never easy, even in the best of times; indeed, poor Dr. Henstock encounters some very redoubtable females in Lulling. A full-scale power struggle erupts over the question of kneeling cushions for the Lady Chapel, and other difficulties revolve around the crotchety old sexton Albert Piggott. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger arrives at the Fuschia Bush cafe, and its rivalry with the Two Pheasants becomes more acute. One knows, however, that Miss Read will make all come right in the end.
It is spring in the village of Thrush Green. In neighboring Lulling, Charles Henstock admires the blooming garden of his new vicarage, glad that the squabbles with his parishoners in Affairs at Thrush Green are settled. And yet the good vicar wistfully recalls his former home - the ugly, old rectory of Thrush Green, which burned to the ground. Now, from the rectory's ruins, the villagers are building eight retirement homes for the older folks most in need. But how to choose who will live there? How will they get on together? And how will they accommodate the dogs, cats, and birds that must come along? The spring has brought a new crop of dilemmas, but Dr. Henstock and the villagers are determined to make the old people feel at home in Thrush Green. In the end, harmony is restored to this tiny fictional world. With wit and grace, Miss Read has charmed numerous critics and won the loyalty of readers who will happily find themselves once more At Home in Thrush Green.
When two beloved primary school teachers, Miss Dorothy and Miss Agnes, decide to retire, the townspeople are aflutter, musing about the teachers’ replacements and seeking an appropriate farewell gift.
Ever since the publication of Village School 35 years ago, Miss Read's numerous novels set in Thrush Green and Fairacre have been bestsellers all over the world. The "new Miss Read" focuses on Thrush Green's two former schoolteachers, now retired, who return for a visit.
A statue of Thrush Green’s famous son Nathaniel Patten has graced the village green for years, but little is actually known of him among present-day residents until an unexpected letter arrives.
Circling the seasons at Thrush Green, Miss Read looks in on a host of characters -- whimsical, eccentric, always keenly observed -- and their daily affairs. By year’s end these stories are satisfyingly interlocked, capturing a bygone era with the charm and humor that give Miss Read her enduring appeal.
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.