Return to Thrush Green

Return to Thrush Green by Read

Spring has arrived in the beautiful village of Thrush Green - but problems are never far away.

It's spring again in the village of Thrush Green, and with the changing season comes change for many of the villagers.

An unexpected arrival at the local railway station is sure to disrupt more than one life; Joan Young's father has come to Thrush Green in the hope that the country air will restore him to health; Miss Fogerty welcomes an old friend and Harold Shoosmith is hoping that, at last, his bachelor days are over.

Meanwhile, Molly and Ben Curdle have a very difficult decision to make...

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.