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Christmas Fiction, Fiction, Short stories
A new arrival in Fairacre brings the Christmas spirit to the whole village - the perfect festive treat from much-loved author Miss Read.
Taken from A COUNTRY CHRISTMAS, this is the perfect short tale for the festive season.
When the Emery family first moved into the village of Fairacre, the locals were not entirely sure what to make of them. With three children, and another on the way, Mrs Emery didn't exactly fit the villagers' idea of a perfect mother.
On Christmas morning, with the sunshine catching the frost on the thatched roofs, there is an unexpected knock at the door of the cottage where Miss Margaret Waters and her sister Mary live. And the events which unfold that day, ensure a very different Christmas than either had seen in all their lives...
Miss Read
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.
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