Miss Read books

Luckygirl
No-one in their thirties ever borrowed a Miss Read book from the City Central Library where I worked, or if they did, I'm certain I didn't serve them!
In fact if memory serves, her readers were almost all well over fifty.
At least they weren't reading the waste of paper and ink that makes up a Mills and Boon!

I don't really belong here as I am not yet a gran (my children are 12 and 10) but I have loved Miss Read books for much of my life. Probably first read them in my 20s or even earlier

Love miss read and have quite a collection she has got me through some stressful times and takes you back to a romantic easier time! Fanciful I know try Rebecca shaw books there great too.

I love the Miss Read books and Lilian Beckwith. I can remember reading The Hills is Lonely whilst I was in labour with my first daughter!
Have you tried Rosamund Pilcher? My favourites of hers are September and The Shell Seekers.

I love the Miss Read books and have most of them (falling apart now, but still a lovely read). You might like another favourite of mine - the Cazelet chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. There are 5 in the series and they follow a large extended family from the 1930s through the Second World War. Also, although they're old, have you tried the James Herriot books such as 'All Creatures Great and Small'?

juggernaut I started reading them when I was only 20! I had just got married and moved to a large town. I so missed my rural life, that I haunted the 'country living' section of the big library. Miss Read, along with books on how to identify mushrooms and thatch a roof, kept me sane during those years of night noises of police cars and ambulances and inconsiderate neighbours playing radios in their gardens. So, yes to Lillian Beckwith, Gervaise Phinn, the vet stories, and many, many memoirs of people buying smallholdings, in search of the Good Life. Miss Read was the first one I picked up, though so will never be forgotten. My very first small village school was much like hers.

I remember reading about an interview with the late Paula Yates many years ago where she said that she loved the Miss Read books.
I read my first one when I was about 20 and have now read them all several times as I just love them.
DE Stevenson is another favourite of mine.
I will have a look in the local library and charity shops for the other authors mentioned on here.

This isn't about country life but everyone I know loves it: Period Piece by Gwen Raverat. It's about her childhood in Cambridge during the 1880s and 90s (she was a granddaughter of Charles Darwin) and is sharply observed and often very funny; it has her own illustrations. It's easy to read when you can't concentrate. Also Molly Hughes' trilogy of memoirs of her life in London and Cornwall in the 1880s and 1890s.

You might like the Burracombe series by Lilian Harry. These are set in a village in Devon and the series starts depicting a time just after the Second World War. My local library in Suffolk seems to have them all so assume they are still in print. I bought the complete Lilian Beckwith series for a fiver on EBay as they are my real 'comfort read'.

My mum introduced me to the books in the adult library with the Miss Read books. I adored them. They're often available cheaply as a collection on the Book People website.

Similar but a bit meatier are the Christine Marion Fraser books, set in Scotland. The Rhanna books are wonderful. I think they may be out of print but are available second hand and on Kindle via Amazon. www.amazon.co.uk/Christine-Marion-Fraser/e/B001HOY1CQ

I've never heard of Miss Read, but will certainly be looking out to read some of these.

I went through a phase a few years back where I just wanted to read a book where nothing happened. And then I stumbled on Barbara Pym and was absolutely delighted by the fact that nothing happened - yet it was full of excitement and intrigue in the protagonist's head: a woman of a certain age involved in her small London parish.

Highly recommended

I like Rosamund Pilcher books, even though the characters in her books feel as if they've fallen on hard times if they're down to only one servant.

Miss Read, Lilian Beckwith, am quite nostalgic. Read them all, some Miss Read several times when couldn't find anything better in the library. I also enjoyed the Jalna series by Mazo de la Roche. I think it was a series on TV back in the days of black and white.

Thank you to all for your suggestions! I'm certainly going to follow them up. The recent death of Victoria Wood reminded me of the Nella Last series of 3 books (Housewife 49) wonderfully evocative! Thank you all again

I've only just read her Christmas stories which I enjoyed but, feeling that I needed a break from them for a while, I have been reading Barbara Pym's Excellent Women which I can't put down. They're not really similar except that they are 'gentle' books. Can't take too much excitement at my age, lol.

When I finish Excellent Women I have Good Behaviour by Molly Keane lined up. I think it's important to try different authors and will definitely be looking for some of the suggestions in this thread.

Ooh 'Good Behaviour ' is one of my favourites! Social comedy at its best. If you like that sort of thing the EFBenson, Mapp and Lucia ones are fabulous. Bitchy small town life in the 20s - wonderful (but not exactly Miss Read)
RC Sheriff's book 'A Fortnight in September' runs at a very slow pace but is exquisite. Its a day by day story of a small family's annual holiday. I loved it.

I read the Miss Read books in my early 20s. They definitely influenced a decision to move to a village location. Deluded!

Ooo yes, I read the books in my 30s and found them rather twee - a bit along the lines of Jane Austen. I enjoyed the school collection; daily life seemed so simple in those days in an idyllic country setting.

Memories keep coming back. Norah Lofts wrote a lovely trilogy, set in Suffolk starting with The Town House, then, The House at Old Vine, and finally The House at Sunset. Worth looking out for.

Loved reading them many years ago so gentle and light hearted I'm going to look on my kindle for one I always found them very calming and that's exactly what I'm in need of.

Another Miss Read fan here. Dora Saint, the author behind 'Miss Read' only died a few years ago.

I loved as a child - and still love - the Punchbowl Farm stories of Monica Edwards. Set on a farm that really exists, near Hindhead in Surrey, and written in the early Fifties to the mid Sixties. They were republished a few years ago by a publishing company called Girls Gone By, who publish many stories by Forties/Fifties/Sixties children's authors. Snapped up by nostalgic adults, including me.

There's also a very good biography of Monica available as well as companion books to both the Punchbowl Farm stories and Monica's Romney Marsh series of books, which cross over to the Punchbowl series with some of the characters from one series appearing in the other. Several of the characters were based on Monica's own children, Shelley and Sean.

Thanks, Jane10. More to explore. Having lots of problems with my eyes just now - how awful it would be to have to cut down on my reading. I'm into buying my books at the moment, usually from Amazon used books. Starting to collect the VMC Designer Collection - the covers are beautiful.

Thanks oldie730! As I started reading these posts, I was wracking my brains for the name Jalna & Mazo de la Roche. How I loved those books, featuring Rennie & Finch! I read both them & the Miss Read books in my mid teens - 40 or so years later, maybe it's time to re-visit them

Oh how lovely to find like minded readers! I've just finished Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson...quite wonderful!
Thank you again for all your recommendations and reminding me of books I've enjoyed in the past and want now to re-read!