Farewell to Fairacre

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395689945 ISBN 13: 9780395689943

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1994

The much-loved headmistress of Fairacre School, in bad health, retires and finds that she must somehow deal with an unwanted suitor, nosy neighbors, and Mrs. Pringle, her cleaning woman

About the Author:

Miss Read is the pseudonym of Mrs. Dora Saint, a former schoolteacher beloved for her novels of English rural life, especially those set in the fictional villages of Thrush Green and Fairacre. The first of these, Village School, was published in 1955, and Miss Read continued to write until her retirement in 1996. In the 1998, she was awarded an MBE, or Member of the Order of the British Empire, for her services to literature. She lives in Berkshire.

From AudioFile:

Many readers cannot do justice to Miss Read's enchanting books; happily San Phillips is the exception. Her presentation fits all the Fairacre characters perfectly. The village has its share of types, from the vicar, to the ungrammatical school children, to grumpy Mrs. Pringle. Each character is fittingly presented, and many become recognizable. Miss Read excels at description and dialogue, which the narrator aptly handles. The title suggests pathos, which Phillips handles with sparkle, rather than tears. Anyone who enjoys reading about people and their foibles will fall in love with Miss Read. S.G.B. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine