A nostalgic collection on rural schools, childhood and English country life. A selection of journalism, published posthumously.

From organizing the school summer fete...

'Because of our inability to recognize our climatic shortcomings from the outset, arrangements for outdoor jollities get completely out of hand'.

...to the sometimes rather odd passions of childhood:

'I collect stones with holes in them'.

Miss Read captures the essence of rural life, and in particular of village schools, as only she can. This collection also includes extracts from her letters and an introduction on how 'Miss Read' was first created:

'Miss Read was born fully clothed in sensible garments and aged about forty. She was born, in fact, when I was struggling to write my first book and needed a village schoolmistress as the narrator.'