Changes at Fairacre
Changes are afoot in the village of Fairacre...
Over the years, Fairacre has seen many changes, some for the better, some less so. But the declining number of children at the village school has again threatened it with closure, and for Miss Read this means maybe losing her livelihood and her home. And as she loses a dear friend, it is with a heavy heart that Miss Read inherits the cottage of Miss Clare.
Some things, however, never change: Miss Read's stout housekeeper, Mrs Pringle, continues her tirades; the harvest fair and fête remain cherished events; Amy has a problem with a most unwelcome guest; and a snowstorm and hurricane hit the village.
Miss Read, or in real life Dora Saint, was a teacher by profession who started writing after the second world war, beginning with light essays written for Punch and other journals. She then wrote on educational and country matters and worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC. Miss Read was married to a schoolmaster for sixty-four years until his death in 2004, and they had one daughter.
Miss Read was awarded an MBE in the 1998 New Year Honours list for her services to literature, She was the author of many immensely popular books, including two autobiographical works, but it was her novels of English rural life for which she was best known. The first of these Village School, was published in 1955, and Miss Read continued to write about the fictional villages of Fairacre and Thrush Green for many years. She lived near Newbury in Berkshire until her death in 2012.
Four plays based on her work have been written by Ron Perry, Miss Read's Thrush Green, Miss Read Remembered, Return to Thrush Green and The Village School.