News from Thrush Green

I find these stories delightful while knowing that I would not like to live in them. This was first published in 1970 but seems even more dated than that as there was quite a long gap between its publication and that of the previous story.

Set in the 1960‘s, News From Thrush Green takes the reader to a lovely small village in the Cotswolds and there we observe the passing the year and the activities of the residents. All the familiar characters from the first two books are there, but we can see that time is catching up with frail Doctor Bailey and the elderly, cantankerous handyman, Albert Piggott. The empty house called Tullivers has been fixed up and the village welcomes a new resident, a young woman and her small son. Of course village gossip runs wild as to why there is no apparent husband in residence.

Miss Read, herself was a country woman and enjoyed the passing of the seasons. In News From Thrush Green we are carried from early September through to the following show more May, and she provides her readers with many picturesque passages that illuminate rural life. These beautiful descriptions combined with a lively story of village life are what make these book perennial favourites of mine.

When I am in the mood for a bit of nostalgia I like to turn to these gentle, charming books. show less

All I said about Village School applies here. The Thrush Green stories are not so much focused on one character as on the whole community. It is a community where a new resident who buys a long-empty house is thrilling news for the whole town, and where the local eccentrics and curmudgeons still have people who care about them and for them. Again, I'd recommend this tale of rural England in the 1950s to anyone in need of some comfort.

Lots of excitement is created when Thrush Green observers realize a young mother and her son have moved into an available cottage. The fact that she has been deserted by her husband gets around quickly. It's not just the busybodies that become interested in the newcomer though, there are a couple of bachelors that soon become quite smitten with her too.

Thrush Green gets a new inhabitant in the form of a woman with a young son - widow, divorcee, or separated is a mystery.

Another nostalgic trip back to the 1960s to catch up with the lives of the inhabitants of Thrush Green.

Book three of the Thrush Green series, this explains a few things that hinted about in the later books I've read. Downloaded this from Audiobooks.com and listened to the entire thing while doing chores about the house in two days.