The School at Thrush Green by Miss Read

This year more than ever I need comfort reading. This can take many forms, from chick lit to nature writing - and it can even include murder mysteries and thrillers, so long as there's nothing too violent or twisted, and everything is resolved in the end. I find, however, that more than anything I've been reading village stories; tales of everyday life in some cosy setting, where everyone knows everyone else, and few people mind their own business. Even for me some of these books are a bit too cosy; life is no more likely to be perfect in a village than a city, and these days the more picturesque properties are probably second homes for the wealthy or Air B & Bs for the rest of us. 

Miss Read's numerous chronicles of Thrush Green and Fairacre are different. 

Her characters may live in villages, but their lives are real; they have problems, disasters, arguments and illnesses just like the rest of us. Miss Read (the late Dora Saint, herself a teacher) is an expert in the art of social observation, and her prose flows so smoothly that the reader reads on and on and never has to stop to wonder which person is supposed to be speaking, or to question why a character is made to do this or that - everything is completely convincing, and although nothing earth-shattering happens, we are caught up in the events that constitute real people's lives.

The School at Thrush Green is the ninth in its series; I had read many of the earlier books when I myself was still at school, but it doesn't matter too much which order you read them in. In this book the two senior teachers at the school, Dorothy Watson and Agnes Fogerty, decide to retire, and much of the story concerns their search for a new house by the sea, Dorothy's decision to buy a car, and Agnes's acquisition of a new pet. Meanwhile the three eccentric Lovelock sisters look for domestic help - and end up getting more than they bargained for - and the widow of the former doctor almost gets lumbered with her demanding and unreliable nephew and his difficult partner. 

So much, so dull, you may think - but Miss Read's skill is to take these small incidents and make them interesting by letting us see the innermost thoughts and worries of each character. The stories are also charmingly illustrated by John S Goodall, some of his drawings being reminiscent of Gwen Raverat's pictures for Period Piece.

While Dorothy is ploughing on with the plans to move to Barton-on-Sea, Agnes is more and more worried about the stray cat she's been feeding. Dorothy thinks Agnes is being irresponsible in encouraging it, since they will have to leave it behind when they move, while Agnes is so upset at the idea that she even thinks of staying on in the village and renting a room somewhere;

'If only Mrs White were here' cried Agnes, shoulders still heaving, 'I know she would take me back again, and the cat too. She adored cats.'

To some this will sound over-dramatic, but to many people pets are family; I remember when we were about to move from Aberdeen to Edinburgh and a friend actually asked me if we were going to take our cats or 'leave them somewhere' - to me this was as bizarre a suggestion as abandoning one of the children. Agnes has no family and although she loves her friend Dorothy devotedly, Tim (as the cat is now known) needs her and she needs to be needed. (For any worried animal lovers out there, rest assured that Tim's future is a rosy one.) 

Similarly, Tom Hardy, a resident of the new sheltered housing, is worried about what will happen to his old dog if he dies first. This is a real concern for older people, for whom pets offer vital companionship; it's a problem soon resolved in the story, but perhaps not so easily sorted in real life (although certain animal charities may be able to help.)

The characters I most enjoyed in this visit to Thrush Green are Violet, Bertha and Ada Lovelock - wealthy but tight-fisted sisters who have never married and live together in their childhood home. Bertha and Ada in particular are still living in the past, so when their long-suffering cleaner leaves to set up a tea shop next door they are lost - worried, as the vicar's wife correctly surmises 'not so much about the help in the house as having to pay for it.' 

They expect to fork out next to nothing for someone to do all their housework, 'light' cooking and

'give a hand with the silver cleaning...scrubbing the floor and the back places...taking the gas stove to pieces for a monthly spring clean....and perhaps some decorating as well...you don't know of anyone who would like a light job, I suppose? ' 

and are shocked when - their reputation for parsimony having gone before them - no-one is interested. Meanwhile their favourite dress shop has let them down:

'We always bought our stays there...right from girlhood, but now they say they are no longer stocking foundation garments! Would you believe it?'

When the Lovelocks acquire Doreen, an 'unmarried mother' ('no better than she should be'), as their new slave, they get more than they bargained for.  Doreen isn't going to take any nonsense from three old ladies, and in the end the sisters come to regret ever allowing her through the front door. 

The Lovelocks may be an extreme, and an entertaining one at that, but they represent the bewilderment of many elderly people when faced with a new and alien world.  On the one hand we may be irritated by the fact that these ladies have been brought up to think they are better than people who have to work for their keep, and by their having no notion whatsoever of doing anything for themselves, but on the other we feel for them in their confusion, and the eventual betrayal of their innocent trust. 

Not every older person resists change though; Dorothy is determined to get back behind the wheel of a car so that she and Agnes can get about in their retirement. It would have been easy to turn this into a comic cameo - silly old lady thinks she can cope with modern traffic and soon learns that she can't - but Miss Read doesn't fall into that trap. Dorothy takes sensible advice about car buying, gets lessons from a reliable neighbour, and takes to the road with great success. The ladies' retirement is one of the most positive events in the book; I did wonder if they would back out of moving at the last minute, but in the end they regret nothing, and head off to a happy new life by the sea.

Another dilemma is faced by the late doctor's widow, Winnie Bailey, when her nephew turns up with his artist partner and announces that they and the nephew's annoying child might move into the village. Like many a parent/aunt, Winnie doesn't want to put them off, but at the same time she fears being lumbered with babysitting and general assistance just when she's enjoying her quiet life. Again this is an increasingly real issue; do older people have to accommodate the needs of their younger relations, and if not, how do they avoid it without feeling guilty? Winnie's nephew has funds and is able to buy his own house, but as house prices rocket, many younger people struggle.

The special quality that makes Miss Read's writing stand out for me is her sense of humour. Many writers have been compared to Barbara Pym, whose eye for social comedy was unparalleled, but Miss Read is one of the very few who can bear that comparison. Whilst she is sympathetic to her characters, she subtly highlights their shortcomings and foibles - as when Doreen begins her first day with the Lovelocks:

'I'll best take up the Vim' Doreen said to Violet standing below.

'Ah yes! I'll shake a little into a saucer for you' said Violet, hurrying back to the cupboard.

'We have a vacuum cleaner for the floors' said Violet, as one might say 'We have a helicopter for the shopping.'

And Dorothy (on choosing cars):

'Not that I have anything against Spain' continued Dorothy, magnanimously 'except the bullfights...and I have nothing against Germany now....but I should like to buy a British car.'

When the vicar visits the Lovelocks, he is offered:

'Some coffee, Charles dear?  

'Yes do' urged Ada 'We have some left over from yesterday.'

The school governors' meeting to discuss a suitable gift for the teachers' retirement is a perfect gem of passive-aggressive 'discussion', with everyone pushing their own ideas while pretending to consider everyone else's, and the eventual decision being to buy exactly what had been proposed in the first place (a carriage clock of course.)

Social observation - and social comedy - are often undervalued in literary circles, but to me they are great art, for surely there are few things more enjoyable than the little quirks and funny ways of others. Miss Read herself acknowledged the influence of Jane Austen on her work; her own books help to carry on a particularly British form of writing without which we readers would be much the poorer.

The School at Thrush Green by Miss Read (Dora Saint) is published by Orion.