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Happy 100th Birthday, Miss Read! — 60 Comments

  1. My mother and I count Miss Read as our favorite author. In fact, this summer along with my husband we have planned a trip to England. We hope to include a trip Witney and Woodgreen too as part of our adventures. Thank you for helping to keep alive her wonderful contribution to literature as well as a bit of sanity in an insane world.

  2. I too was introduced to Miss Read books by an English teacher, I was hooked and have every book she has ever written. In times of stress such as when my dad died they have been such a comfort to me. When I read newspapers now I often think I wish life was much simpler. I hope my daughter doesn’t give them away, when I am gone. I have had hours of enjoyment from both series having read every one so many times, I always read one on a journey. Thanks Miss Read.

  3. Miss Read Books are simply the best form of Escapism and Therapy. They are my go to tonic in times of stress. I’ve read all her books several times over and over again…. Dotty Harmer,Albert Piggot and Mrs Pringle are real characters never lacking in courage if more people were like them and all Miss Read’s characters the world would be a better place. Sadly Miss Read’s village life is a vanished world.

  4. I love reading the Fairacre and Thrush Green books. Like many other readers I read them over and over again. The stories bring my memories of school life in England in the early 1950’s to life. To this day I can’t drink milk after I was made to drink my bottle of soured milk due to the pot bellied stove in our classroom. Taking nature walks, picking violets and primroses, conkers, and nature tables. I still, when my legs are felling little pain, love to go on nature walks. I was born in 1946 and feel I have lived through the best of times and worst of times. Miss Read helps remind me of the best.

  5. I have been a long time fan of Miss Read books. I bought Village School as a paperback when still at schand adored it. I think it contributed to my desire later in life to become an infant school teacher! They are all such gentle relaxing stories which I turn to time and time again, and will always do so. Thank you Dora Saint (Miss Read)

  6. I discovered all of her lovely books at the public library. I love her books and since I came upon them in the mid 1980’s I haven’t stopped reading them again! I love her humor, her descriptions of nature: flowers, trees, landscape and compassion for her characters. Please, Ms. Connelly, if you ever see her daughter again, tell her how happy I am that she wrote every one of them. I think they should all be considered Classics!

  7. Thank you all for your lovely comments about Miss Read, my mother. She was always very touched, and a bit disbelieving, when people said what a comfort the books were, but it’s the readers who keep her name alive.

    Jill

  8. I have the whole collection of her work and I am excited to be reading them all over again in retirement. I read lots of books and keep very few for my own collection but I knew the first time I read these they were keepers!
    Diana S. Williams

  9. It may be a little late to make a comment but I do want to say that I absolutely love Miss Read’s books and have read them time and time again. I always turn to them in times of stress and feel as if the characters are part of my own circle of friends. I live in New Zealand but have visited England several times and love the little villages over there. My family came from there over a hundred years ago and find myself wishing that had been born there although I do appreciate all that New Zealand has to offer.

  10. I wrote to her and got a lovely hand written letter back. I treasure it. I adored her books.

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