Tag Archives: English village setting

Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read

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Over the year I collected a few winter/Christmas themed books to read in December, in an effort to make me feel a bit more festive. Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read is the first one that I read. It was first published in 1961.

The book actually begins in Autumn, it’s an early Autumn in Thrush Green but the local weather sages are predicting a hard winter ahead. Mainly though the villagers are interested in an empty house which has been up for sale for a while, when a SOLD sign appears on it there’s a lot of speculation as to who their new neighbour will be.

It turns out that their new neighbour Harold Shoosmith ends up throwing himself into the community. He had lived most of his life in a part of Africa which had had a Victorian missionary who had been born in Thrush Green. Harold had always intended to retire to his hero’s birthplace, with a view to putting up a memorial to him.

This was as you would expect from Miss Read – a gentle but entertaining tale, but if you have ever lived in a smallish community I’m sure you’ll recognise some of the chracters and situations, I found that quite amusing. I recognised quite a few of the locals here and there’s been a fairly recent rash of ‘blue plaques’ to people who nobody knew a thing about and wouldn’t even have been famous in their heyday!

The book is illustrated by J.S. Goodall.

August Folly by Angela Thirkell

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For some reason I was under the impression that August Folly was the first in Thirkell’s Barsetshire series, but it isn’t. I should have read High Rising first but I don’t have that one yet. This one was first published in 1936.

It’s set in the fictional Barsetshire village of Worsted, it’s sixty miles west of London and to get there you have to change trains at the village of Winter Overcotes.

As you would expect from a Thirkell book this is a light hearted romance and it mainly concerns the planning and rehearsals for a village play, an annual event. The book is full of characters who say things like: ‘Oh golly, that’s good, I’m frightfully, terribly, ghastly pleased.’

An enjoyable read but definitely not one of Thirkells best. I don’t think she really hit her stride until the outbreak of World War II. The whole thing gave her so much to write about with the big upheaval in society, especially all the red tape and rationing and the influx of foreigners and evacuees.

It’s still worth reading though and I hope to work my way through them all eventually. You can see a list of all of her books here if you’re interested.