Mrs Griffin Sends Her Love
Last summer, I heard about the release of a brand new Miss Read book. Dora Saint’s daughter, Jill, had been helping to collate the articles and essays which her mother had written before her more famous Fairacre and Thrush Green novels were published. The result is Mrs Griffin Sends Her Love – a gorgeous anthology full of all the wit and charm we’ve come to expect from the pen of Miss Read.
Jill was kind enough to answer a few questions about the book:
How did the idea for Mrs Griffin Sends Her Love come about ?
I’d thought for a long time that a collection of Dora’s earlier, more journalistic, work would be interesting to publish, as it gives a wider insight into her writing career before she became well known as Miss Read. A great deal of it is from the 1950s and 60s, so is almost social history.
How did you choose the pieces included in the collection?
The publisher, Juliet Ewers from Orion Books, skimmed through the material first and picked the ones she particularly liked. Then Jenny Dereham, Dora’s long-time editor, and I added more that we thought should be used, once the length of the book was agreed. On the whole, we didn’t argue much!
Was it hard coming up with the title?
That was Jenny again, trawling through the individual titles for something a bit unusual, and this one appealed to me since Mrs Griffin was the mother of my oldest friend, Caroline. She too is delighted that our mothers have been linked in this way, as the two families were very close.
Do you have a favourite piece from the book?
The title piece, of course, for sentimental reasons, and The Lucky Hole, which started Dora’s career as Miss Read. I also enjoy the classroom ones – Unstable Element and Night and Day in particular.
Your mother was a very versatile writer. Was there anything she would have liked to have written but didn’t get around to?
She would say The Importance of Being Earnest! She did say she would have liked to write a play but felt she hadn’t the experience of theatre to know how best to construct it. She enjoyed reading detective novels but, as a writer, she thought she wouldn’t be able to work out that type of plot. The two Caxley books (The Market Square and The Howards of Caxley) were originally planned as a trilogy, but she never did the third one; I’m not sure why.
There are many wonderful insights into Dora Saint’s experiences as a teacher in the book. Which do you think your mother enjoyed most: writing or teaching? Or perhaps writing about teaching!
Almost certainly writing, which was her first choice of career, although, of course, the teaching fed most of her writing, and she was a very good and conscientious teacher.
Can we expect any more compilation books from the Miss Read archives in future?
No, because there are only a few pieces left, and we felt those were no longer relevant, which is why they weren’t included in Mrs Griffin. She wrote a great deal for the BBC, but I don’t have all the scripts and they wouldn’t, in any case, reproduce well as straightforward reading. She also reviewed many books for the TES, and those reviews wouldn’t be particularly interesting now, even if we could find copies!
Do you feel any pressure about becoming the guardian of Miss Read’s work?
Up to a point, but I have the enormous support of Jenny with her knowledge of the past work, and how best to look after it, and the current publishers, Orion, who have now reissued almost all the novels. In due course the archive will go to the University of Reading, which already has the manuscripts and proofs. Their literary archive is housed with the Museum of Rural Life, which seems most appropriate for the Miss Read material.
Mrs Griffin Sends Her Love is available now.
Thanks so much, Jill! And thanks to Jenny and Orion who are keeping the wonderful books of Miss Read very much in the public eye.
I’m so thankful for this Jill and Victoria. What a lovely interview! I started collecting “Miss Read’s” books some time ago, and was thrilled to discover a new collection of her writings to go with them (thanks to Miss Victoria Connelly for announcing the good news!). I enjoy the ‘Fairacre’ series best, but ‘Thrush Green’ comes in a very close second. I haven’t read ‘Mrs. Griffin Sends Her Love’ yet, due to the many other books I’m currently reading, but it’s definitely next on my reading list…for sure…and I can’t wait! For now, it’s propped up beautifully on my bookshelf, waiting to be devoured and enjoyed again and again! xx
I didn’t know about this book so I’m thrilled to hear about it. I’m a huge fan of ‘Miss Read’, and as a young teacher, a few years ago now ;), I devoured every one. I re-read them from time to time and get the same enjoyment as I did the first time I read them.
Thank you Victoria for highlighting this book, and thank you Jill for adding another to a wonderful collection!
Anna and Jane – I know you’re going to love the book – it’s a real treat to read these early pieces.
I’ve just finished ‘Mrs Griffin sends her love’. So great to be able to have just a little more of ‘Miss Read’. She is easily my favourite author, her books are amazing.
Thank you for sharing this interview. I’ve been a Miss Read fan for over 30 years and have collected all like of Dora Saint’s book apart from about 3 children’s books. I wrote to Dora 30 years ago and she replied with a lovely letter. Her books have given me great pleasure and I have read them many times – they are like a cosy chat with a dear friend. I would dearly love to contact Jill Saint and wonder if you have an address? Victoria B.
I have loved these books for years but only now have started to collect them.i read them every year, usually starting in the spring but this year i started at Xmas and haven’t stopped.they are my prized possessions, I’m only sorry i couldn’t tell dora saint how fabulous they were,all i can say is thank you for many hours of pleasure year after year
I love reading all of Miss Read books. Now I have the pleasure of buying this one. Read them over and over and have everyone except for the childrens ones which I hope to add to my collection when I can get them. A joy to read over and over again. Thankyou.
Now that there will be no more Miss Read books, I shall return to the novels and reread some (all?) of them. I just happened, by luck, to find this book, and I read it one piece each day, to make it last longer.