Tales from a Village School

Our thirty-ninth book by Miss Read is a delightful collection of forty stories, first published forty years ago in England and collected here for the first time in book form. Based on Miss Read's (the real-life Dora Saint) own lifelong involvement with country schools, these stories chronicle the life of a village schoolteacher in the Berkshires. Whether describing the zestful decking of the church for the Harvest Festival or the wicked wisdom of a child confessing to breaking a skylight window, Miss Read captures the scenes of village school life and of childhood itself with humorous understanding of human foibles and a love of nature that have long endeared her to readers. Fresh and beautifully written, these stories led to the writing of Miss Read's popular novels set in the villages of Fairacre and Thrush Green. This is vintage Miss Read, sure to delight her many fans. Tales from a Village School includes a new foreword by the author and line drawings by Kate Dicker.