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Fresh from the Country
Miss Read in this humorous and charming story draws us magically into the world of the primary school. Anna Lacey, a young country girl, is given her first job in Greater London, and as she learns to cope with the challenges of her new life, we share with her the delights and pleasures of teaching "those dear, devilish, delicious, disarming, infuriating and exhausting creatures" who are her young pupils.
197 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1955
134 people are currently reading
483 people want to read
About the author
Miss Read
159 books521 followersDora Jessie Saint MBE née Shafe (born 17 April 1913), best known by the pen name Miss Read, was an English novelist, by profession a schoolmistress. Her pseudonym was derived from her mother's maiden name. In 1940 she married her husband, Douglas, a former headmaster. The couple had a daughter, Jill. She began writing for several journals after World War II and worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC.
She wrote a series of novels from 1955 to 1996. Her work centred on two fictional English villages, Fairacre and Thrush Green. The principal character in the Fairacre books, "Miss Read", is an unmarried schoolteacher in a small village school, an acerbic and yet compassionate observer of village life. Miss Read's novels are wry regional social comedies, laced with gentle humour and subtle social commentary. Miss Read is also a keen observer of nature and the changing seasons.
Her most direct influence is from Jane Austen, although her work also bears similarities to the social comedies of manners written in the 1920s and 1930s, and in particular the work of Barbara Pym. Miss Read's work has influenced a number of writers in her own turn, including the American writer Jan Karon. The musician Enya has a track on her Watermark album named after the book Miss Clare Remembers, and one on her Shepherd Moons album named after No Holly for Miss Quinn.
In 1996 she retired. In 1998 she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to literature. She died 7 April, 2012 in Shefford Woodlands.
She wrote a series of novels from 1955 to 1996. Her work centred on two fictional English villages, Fairacre and Thrush Green. The principal character in the Fairacre books, "Miss Read", is an unmarried schoolteacher in a small village school, an acerbic and yet compassionate observer of village life. Miss Read's novels are wry regional social comedies, laced with gentle humour and subtle social commentary. Miss Read is also a keen observer of nature and the changing seasons.
Her most direct influence is from Jane Austen, although her work also bears similarities to the social comedies of manners written in the 1920s and 1930s, and in particular the work of Barbara Pym. Miss Read's work has influenced a number of writers in her own turn, including the American writer Jan Karon. The musician Enya has a track on her Watermark album named after the book Miss Clare Remembers, and one on her Shepherd Moons album named after No Holly for Miss Quinn.
In 1996 she retired. In 1998 she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to literature. She died 7 April, 2012 in Shefford Woodlands.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
August 11, 2025
4-1/2 Stars
July 7, 2010
I have read several "Miss Read" novels and have been thoroughly charmed by them all. I thought it was because I am also a teacher that I realated to them, although heaven knows teaching in the US in 2010 is just a little different than England in the early 60's! But I realize have come to enjoy her pithy observations about people and places, the school room is just a part of all that. Some one reviewed her as using "too many adjectives". REally? I delight in her descriptions
February 12, 2024
it's a refreshing read that calm you down after work rush, and it makes me want to read the countryside series.
Complete review on my blog: https://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2024...
Complete review on my blog: https://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2024...
December 6, 2007
One of Miss Read's very early works, it suffers from too many adjectives and too shallow characters. But it's a pleasant read.
did-not-finish
July 26, 2021After two dreary chapters, on page 18 I decided that she will always be Miss Unread to me.
May 10, 2025
An old fave this time on audio- relaxation at its best!
January 9, 2024
For a book that was only 190 pages (actually a little less than that) it was very much a slog. While I could relate to the problems that Anna was facing as a former teacher myself, it got tiresome after a while hearing differences between the country and urban environments. There really isn't a plot to this book and its entire focus was being about Anna's first year of teaching. Only problem is that Anna is a very hard to like character. She is a tad too snobby and judgmental. And honestly, none of the other characters were very likable either except maybe Tom who we don't see enough of. Maybe this would have worked better as a diary like Mrs. Tim or Diary of a Provincial Lady.
This is my first Miss Read novel but I have sampled the first chapter of Thrush Green and it felt so much warmer in that 1 chapter than this entire book. I still plan to try more of her works and won't hold this against her. Thinking about it, I understand why this book only just got republished this year and not by Macmillan or Hachette like all of her other works. I think Furrowed Middlebrow just wanted to have their very own Miss Read to their collection and this was the only adult novel left unpublished. And there was probably a reason for that...
This is my first Miss Read novel but I have sampled the first chapter of Thrush Green and it felt so much warmer in that 1 chapter than this entire book. I still plan to try more of her works and won't hold this against her. Thinking about it, I understand why this book only just got republished this year and not by Macmillan or Hachette like all of her other works. I think Furrowed Middlebrow just wanted to have their very own Miss Read to their collection and this was the only adult novel left unpublished. And there was probably a reason for that...
August 22, 2015
Set in the 1950s, Fresh from the Country is a stand-alone novel telling the story of Anna Lacey, a newly qualified teacher, as she spends her first year teaching in Elm Hill, a new suburb in London. It is a little disappointing, because although Miss Read successfully conveys Anna’s dislike of the new suburb in comparison to her love of life in the countryside where she grew up, I found it a bit over done and dispiriting and the comparison is repeated several times in different ways throughout the book.
See more on my blog - http://www.booksplease.org/2015/08/22...
See more on my blog - http://www.booksplease.org/2015/08/22...
May 18, 2021
I was extremely happy to receive this stand-alone Miss Read novel. Having already read all of the Fairacre and Thrush Green series, I was ready for some more from her. She did not disappoint in this story of a year in the life of a young school teacher (Miss Lacey) embarking on her first teaching assignment. She is sent to a school in a newly developed neighborhood in the suburbs of London, which does not compare favorably to the country where she grew up. As always, Miss Read's descriptions of the countryside and the people Miss Lacey meets are wonderful.
September 13, 2022
Miss Read (Dora Saint) certainly understood people and teaching. This is a stand alone title, separate from her Fairacre or Thrush Green novels. It fits right in with Stevenson or Cadell, although the setting here is much less idyllic (purposely). There's a gentle romance and a few laugh out loud moments. Would make for cozy comfort reading in the fall or winter.
May 29, 2020
This was a sweet and delightful read. No big drama, just a sweet story with insightful characters.
Life in the country and in the growing suburbs of London in the early 1950s are contrasted in this story of a young girl's first year of teaching.
Life in the country and in the growing suburbs of London in the early 1950s are contrasted in this story of a young girl's first year of teaching.
September 4, 2025
I thought I had read through Miss Read's oeuvre until I discovered this short novel on archive.org (or Open Library). This standalone is not part of her Fairacre or Thrush Green series.
Set in the late 1950's it is a chronicle of a first-year teacher in an overcrowded London suburb to the Boomer generation. Thankfully, she finds respite at her parent's farm on weekends and holidays. I'm not familiar with English school systems, but Anna Lacey's classes seem to be in the range of third - fifth grades. The younger kids' are called infant classes.
The horror part of this story is the class size: 48! When another teacher is gone, she gets 12 more students. Talk about insanity!
The novel covers the first year. The ending seemed, I don't know, bland.
Set in the late 1950's it is a chronicle of a first-year teacher in an overcrowded London suburb to the Boomer generation. Thankfully, she finds respite at her parent's farm on weekends and holidays. I'm not familiar with English school systems, but Anna Lacey's classes seem to be in the range of third - fifth grades. The younger kids' are called infant classes.
The horror part of this story is the class size: 48! When another teacher is gone, she gets 12 more students. Talk about insanity!
She found herself called upon to teach Scripture, Physical Exercise, Arithmetic, Writing, Reading, English Composition Written and Oral, History, Geography, Nature Study, Art, Handicrafts, Music and Singing, Hygiene and a mysterious subject called Rhythmic Work which had somehow eluded her during her studies.Miss Read always inserts humor in her writing, but this book has gentle snark. She pokes fun at other teachers, the headmistress, and parents.
The novel covers the first year. The ending seemed, I don't know, bland.
February 27, 2024
Adorable.
April 6, 2025
A wonderful read about a new school teacher in a new London suburb. The bleakness of the suburb is pretty depressing, and the school is ridiculously overcrowded, but overall a nice read.
November 28, 2025
A good solid book which has a lot to say about the tearing down of the countryside and the building of relatively soulless concrete structures; overcrowding at schools; the hardiness and camaraderie of school teachers, and the soul-refreshing joy of the countryside.
August 6, 2025
My first Miss Read and I think it was a mistake to start with this one and not one of her more famous books.
June 30, 2017
This is the first book I have read by Miss Read. I loved it! I really enjoyed the era in which these books have been written and I look forward to reading more ie Fairacre &Thrush Green series.
May 12, 2021
A lovely standalone Miss Read novel, recently republished (by an imprint with a truly great name: Furrowed Middlebrow). As you can surmise from the title, this book follows new schoolteacher Anna, a country girl through and through, whose first teaching post is in the London suburbs. Naturally it's a bit of a transition for Anna, but she goes home every weekend, which is good for her mental health and good for us readers too, as it means we still get Miss Read's lovely descriptions of the country. And of course there are plenty of interesting human subjects for Miss Read to depict as well!
Miss Read's novels are always such a balm, and this was just the book I needed this spring. Fave quotes below.
---
After Anna tells Tom about some petty neighbors who stopped by for tea at her landlady's, they discuss the secret to happiness (p. 113-4):
'Maybe not, but there's no need to turn exclusively to the T.V. and your neighbours' good luck for your interests. What beats me,' went on Tom warmly, 'is the neglect of simple pleasures and the complete loss of—well—wonder. Why, I get a thrill every time I plant something that looks like a dead flea and up comes a great, glorious, pulsing flower! Who wouldn't?'
'You've got the knack of happy living,' commented Anna. 'I think you must be like my mother who says that you aren't just given happiness. She says you have to pick it up here and there all through the day. And she does too. She smells a rose, or she marvels at a bird hanging upside down on a spray, she makes a perfect dinner. She really savours life, you know, and from it she builds up a stock of happiness.'
---
And this gorgeous description of Spring (p. 137):
The country was beginning to flower into spring. The stark black outlines of the trees took on a softer line, as though a charcoal drawing had been lightly blurred, as millions of buds swelled and began to break their tight casings. There was a rosy smoke over the elm trees, the honeysuckle, which twined over an arch in the garden, was in small bright leaf, and the rose trees had put out little red fans of new leaves. Everything smelt of hope and growing warmth and it was impossible not to respond.
Miss Read's novels are always such a balm, and this was just the book I needed this spring. Fave quotes below.
---
After Anna tells Tom about some petty neighbors who stopped by for tea at her landlady's, they discuss the secret to happiness (p. 113-4):
'Maybe not, but there's no need to turn exclusively to the T.V. and your neighbours' good luck for your interests. What beats me,' went on Tom warmly, 'is the neglect of simple pleasures and the complete loss of—well—wonder. Why, I get a thrill every time I plant something that looks like a dead flea and up comes a great, glorious, pulsing flower! Who wouldn't?'
'You've got the knack of happy living,' commented Anna. 'I think you must be like my mother who says that you aren't just given happiness. She says you have to pick it up here and there all through the day. And she does too. She smells a rose, or she marvels at a bird hanging upside down on a spray, she makes a perfect dinner. She really savours life, you know, and from it she builds up a stock of happiness.'
---
And this gorgeous description of Spring (p. 137):
The country was beginning to flower into spring. The stark black outlines of the trees took on a softer line, as though a charcoal drawing had been lightly blurred, as millions of buds swelled and began to break their tight casings. There was a rosy smoke over the elm trees, the honeysuckle, which twined over an arch in the garden, was in small bright leaf, and the rose trees had put out little red fans of new leaves. Everything smelt of hope and growing warmth and it was impossible not to respond.
January 21, 2023
I finally decided on reading "Fresh From the Country" by Miss Read. The introduction by Miss Read's daughter was interesting and it seemed that Anna's life had some resemblance to the author's. I was not sure if I would be taken but at the end I had thoroughly enjoyed this story and look forward to her other novels. It seemed that the teachers with a big class of 48 had more babysitting needs than teaching, though I see this through eyes of a layman. I could not help laughing each time the mention of infants being students, it must be a British thing.
Story in short- Country girl, Anna starts her teaching career in a town.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 6
Young Anna Lacey has spent most of her life on a farm in Essex. But her first teaching position carries her to an unattractive, newly constructed
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 7
suburb where she has to adjust to cramped lodgings, a skinflint landlady, overcrowded classrooms, and eccentric colleagues (‘a rum lot’). She must also adapt some of her idealistic theories of teaching to the realities of her energetic, exuberant pupils.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 44
When Dean Street Press suggested reissuing Fresh from the Country, I was delighted. It doesn’t fall within either the Thrush Green or the Fairacre series, and tends to get overlooked.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 5
Anna’s spirits rose as she approached her home. The journey took over two hours from the new raw suburb where she was to take up her teaching appointment next September. She had travelled across the vast sprawling mass of London which sweltered in the throbbing heat and
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 5
had felt the oppression of spirits which row upon row of streets always produced in her. As the streets gave way to leafy suburbs and then to the gentle flat country of her own neighbourhood, happiness returned. The wind blew refreshingly through the open window of the Green Line coach, fragrant with the smell of freshly-cut hay and the flowers of many a sunny meadow.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 10
And yet the place had depressed her. She remembered the string of new factories which she had passed on her way there that afternoon. The school was not unlike them at first sight, massive, immaculate, teeming with life and yet impersonal. She remembered the square red brick school which she herself had attended, its comfortable domestic outline shrouded in homely
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 10
creeper. Here two hundred girls had worked and played and had thought themselves a large body of people. How would she fare with six hundred under one roof?
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 11
Meanwhile all the joys of home and summer thronged about her. The whinny of her pony in the paddock lifted her spirits, and retracing her steps Anna made her way back to the home which, to her surprise, suddenly seemed doubly dear.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 17
Only in one respect did Florence Enderby fail. Although she hardly realised it herself and would have denied it strenuously
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 17
if she had been told, the fact remained. Florence Enderby did not like children. She recognised that they were essential to her job. They were the raw material upon which her skill could work and upon whom new methods could be tried and results noted.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 17
They were her school, her children, the living evidence of her work and effort. Collectively she gloried in them. As individuals she found them tiresome.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
I was wondering if it would be definitive that Tom and Anna would marry but it was basically implied. The love between them is there but not really seen except in their friendship and concern for each other. This is mostly a young teacher Anna having a culture shock from living in the country and teaching in a large town setting. I was not sure at first if I would enjoy this but it was interesting especially Anna's forthright thoughts and may times honest comments. I loved Joan and her easy going way at looking at life, I was glad when she was done with Maurice and hoping the best with her and Ted.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 18
This morning as she gazed down upon them arriving thick and fast in the playground, the feeling of pride was dominant. A school of nearly six hundred! she told herself triumphantly. She had done well. She had never thought, when she had started on her career almost thirty years before that such a headship would ever be hers!
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
‘Watch that boy,’ murmured Miss Enderby, in an audible aside. ‘Broken home—brother
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
brother in Borstal—enlarged tonsils—and some rather dreadful habits which the school psychiatrist says are compensatory, but I think are nasty and nothing more!’ Anna looked with fresh interest at Arnold and thought he looked far too innocent and apple-cheeked to have such a record. But, even as she looked, she saw a fleeting grimace distort his pink face expressing, in no uncertain terms, his scorn of Miss Enderby
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
who was giving her final messages to the new teacher.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
“Is no one going to remember his manners?’ asked Miss Enderby, carefully grammatic. With a nervous start Anna hastened forward to the door, but was waved back by an undulation of her headmistress’s hand, the sapphire ring flashing in the light. Galvanised into action a dozen or more children leapt to their feet knocking over their chairs as they made an ugly rush
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
to open the door. A freckled mite with two skinny red plaits was the first to hurl herself upon the handle and drag open the door. She was rewarded by a gracious smile. ‘Thank you, dear, thank you,’ said Miss Enderby and sailed majestically into the corridor. A faint sigh of relief rippled round the class as the door was closed behind her, chests deflated, backs slumped, and the forty-six tongues which had so far kept
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 22
unnaturally silent began to wag cheerfully. Anna watched this degeneration with some dismay. For all the notice the class was taking of her she might have been non-existent. She remembered, with sudden relief, some advice given her at college to use in just such a situation.
Story in short- Country girl, Anna starts her teaching career in a town.
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 6
Young Anna Lacey has spent most of her life on a farm in Essex. But her first teaching position carries her to an unattractive, newly constructed
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 7
suburb where she has to adjust to cramped lodgings, a skinflint landlady, overcrowded classrooms, and eccentric colleagues (‘a rum lot’). She must also adapt some of her idealistic theories of teaching to the realities of her energetic, exuberant pupils.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 44
When Dean Street Press suggested reissuing Fresh from the Country, I was delighted. It doesn’t fall within either the Thrush Green or the Fairacre series, and tends to get overlooked.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 5
Anna’s spirits rose as she approached her home. The journey took over two hours from the new raw suburb where she was to take up her teaching appointment next September. She had travelled across the vast sprawling mass of London which sweltered in the throbbing heat and
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 5
had felt the oppression of spirits which row upon row of streets always produced in her. As the streets gave way to leafy suburbs and then to the gentle flat country of her own neighbourhood, happiness returned. The wind blew refreshingly through the open window of the Green Line coach, fragrant with the smell of freshly-cut hay and the flowers of many a sunny meadow.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 10
And yet the place had depressed her. She remembered the string of new factories which she had passed on her way there that afternoon. The school was not unlike them at first sight, massive, immaculate, teeming with life and yet impersonal. She remembered the square red brick school which she herself had attended, its comfortable domestic outline shrouded in homely
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 10
creeper. Here two hundred girls had worked and played and had thought themselves a large body of people. How would she fare with six hundred under one roof?
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 11
Meanwhile all the joys of home and summer thronged about her. The whinny of her pony in the paddock lifted her spirits, and retracing her steps Anna made her way back to the home which, to her surprise, suddenly seemed doubly dear.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 17
Only in one respect did Florence Enderby fail. Although she hardly realised it herself and would have denied it strenuously
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 17
if she had been told, the fact remained. Florence Enderby did not like children. She recognised that they were essential to her job. They were the raw material upon which her skill could work and upon whom new methods could be tried and results noted.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 17
They were her school, her children, the living evidence of her work and effort. Collectively she gloried in them. As individuals she found them tiresome.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
I was wondering if it would be definitive that Tom and Anna would marry but it was basically implied. The love between them is there but not really seen except in their friendship and concern for each other. This is mostly a young teacher Anna having a culture shock from living in the country and teaching in a large town setting. I was not sure at first if I would enjoy this but it was interesting especially Anna's forthright thoughts and may times honest comments. I loved Joan and her easy going way at looking at life, I was glad when she was done with Maurice and hoping the best with her and Ted.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 18
This morning as she gazed down upon them arriving thick and fast in the playground, the feeling of pride was dominant. A school of nearly six hundred! she told herself triumphantly. She had done well. She had never thought, when she had started on her career almost thirty years before that such a headship would ever be hers!
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
‘Watch that boy,’ murmured Miss Enderby, in an audible aside. ‘Broken home—brother
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
brother in Borstal—enlarged tonsils—and some rather dreadful habits which the school psychiatrist says are compensatory, but I think are nasty and nothing more!’ Anna looked with fresh interest at Arnold and thought he looked far too innocent and apple-cheeked to have such a record. But, even as she looked, she saw a fleeting grimace distort his pink face expressing, in no uncertain terms, his scorn of Miss Enderby
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
who was giving her final messages to the new teacher.
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
“Is no one going to remember his manners?’ asked Miss Enderby, carefully grammatic. With a nervous start Anna hastened forward to the door, but was waved back by an undulation of her headmistress’s hand, the sapphire ring flashing in the light. Galvanised into action a dozen or more children leapt to their feet knocking over their chairs as they made an ugly rush
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 21
to open the door. A freckled mite with two skinny red plaits was the first to hurl herself upon the handle and drag open the door. She was rewarded by a gracious smile. ‘Thank you, dear, thank you,’ said Miss Enderby and sailed majestically into the corridor. A faint sigh of relief rippled round the class as the door was closed behind her, chests deflated, backs slumped, and the forty-six tongues which had so far kept
Highlight (Yellow) | Page 22
unnaturally silent began to wag cheerfully. Anna watched this degeneration with some dismay. For all the notice the class was taking of her she might have been non-existent. She remembered, with sudden relief, some advice given her at college to use in just such a situation.
January 1, 2023
Although this story is enjoyable enough in its recounting of a young teacher's year working in her first job, there's something lacking in the narrative that's become so familiar to me in all Miss Read's other novels. Yes, there are still well-drawn characters in this Elm Hill tale, still interesting goings-on within their lives and still a well-paced narrative that kept me turning the pages. I can only surmise that it is the scant charm of the novel - an ingredient so abundant in the Fairacre and Thrush Green books - that has made this one a little less enjoyable.
October 23, 2024
Every so often, I feel the need to revisit the world of Miss Read -- and these days definitely qualify. It's so interesting to step back into Britain circa 1960 and see how it was already changing from its country setting. Being an Anglophile, I really enjoy each detail of Anna's first year teaching the "juniors" in a Primary school but then I am also the person who will look in the background of a show to see how the furniture is set up and a million other fascinating details. lol!
January 18, 2012
I am a huge fan of these charming and perceptive commentaries on village life post WW2. I am enjoying them more and more with each volume read.
NB This is the original hardback edition so the cover is not as shown
NB This is the original hardback edition so the cover is not as shown
February 6, 2011
All Miss Read's books are charming. In another life I would be the village old maid school teacher.
July 5, 2019
These are always sweet books. I have read everything I can of hers. They are of a gentler time and it is refreshing.
December 2, 2011
I felt that this book was written just for me. It's everything that I want a book to be.
May 17, 2024
This standalone novel was published in 1960. Saint took her teaching training in Cambridge and her first teaching job in a West London school. Fresh From the Country is likely influenced by her early teaching experiences there. She also wrote a series of light articles for Punch magazine after WWII, influenced by the London experiences.
This book is grimmer than any of her Fairacre or Thrush Green novels - the teaching conditions depicted were horrendous; at least in this area of London. Over-crowded classrooms, endless interruptions, idiotic inspectors, and constant outside noise from nearby construction. Poor Anna Lacey finds it all almost too much to cope with, having to also deal with, on top of everything else, a tyrant of a landlady who is niggard with food and heat.
However, Anna is young and resilient, shouldering her responsibilities as best she can, with as much humor as she can muster. She makes some firm friends, and in the end acquires much improved digs, and has a potential husband (a fellow suffering school teacher) on the horizon. The end begs for a follow-up novel but we aren’t given one.
Now, I’ve noticed that a lot of people describe the Miss Read books as “sweet” or worse, “twee”. Perhaps they are in comparison with modern literature, especially those rife with sex, violence, profanity, and other ills of society. “Sweet” isn’t what comes to my mind when reading these books. That suggests sugary and saccharine, which they are not. Slower-paced, simpler and quieter, are maybe better words. Miss Read is clear-eyed, wry and sharp in her observations of human foibles, and her humor is deliciously tart.
As a postscript, if one is new to Miss Read, I wouldn’t start with this book but with one from the Fairacre or Thrush Green series.
This book is grimmer than any of her Fairacre or Thrush Green novels - the teaching conditions depicted were horrendous; at least in this area of London. Over-crowded classrooms, endless interruptions, idiotic inspectors, and constant outside noise from nearby construction. Poor Anna Lacey finds it all almost too much to cope with, having to also deal with, on top of everything else, a tyrant of a landlady who is niggard with food and heat.
However, Anna is young and resilient, shouldering her responsibilities as best she can, with as much humor as she can muster. She makes some firm friends, and in the end acquires much improved digs, and has a potential husband (a fellow suffering school teacher) on the horizon. The end begs for a follow-up novel but we aren’t given one.
Now, I’ve noticed that a lot of people describe the Miss Read books as “sweet” or worse, “twee”. Perhaps they are in comparison with modern literature, especially those rife with sex, violence, profanity, and other ills of society. “Sweet” isn’t what comes to my mind when reading these books. That suggests sugary and saccharine, which they are not. Slower-paced, simpler and quieter, are maybe better words. Miss Read is clear-eyed, wry and sharp in her observations of human foibles, and her humor is deliciously tart.
As a postscript, if one is new to Miss Read, I wouldn’t start with this book but with one from the Fairacre or Thrush Green series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 30, 2024
" The air was very still. Far away she could hear the sound of her father's baler clack-clacking in a distant hay field. She leaned upon a gate and looked at the wheat spreading acre after acre before her. It was sturdy and green, and the girl realized, with a start, that by the time it had turned golden she would be teaching, and would not be there to see all the days of harvest.
For the first time, she had doubts. "
Fresh from the country, 1960
Miss Read
@dean_street_press
La joven Anna Lacey se despide de la granja familiar en Essex para empezar una nueva etapa como maestra en una escuela londinense.
Llegar de un idílico y tranquilo paraje a un populoso y desangelado suburbio supone todo un reto para Ana que además debe poner a prueba los métodos de enseñanza que acaba de aprender y enfrentarse a aulas superpobladas, a colegas excéntricos y a la mano de hierro de la directora.
Además debe lidiar con su mezquina casera y sobrevivir en una minúscula y gélida habitación mientras trata de adaptarse a los desafíos y exigencias de su trabajo y su nueva vida social.
Poco a poco, su determinación y su visión optimista de la vida se abrirán camino
Una historia entrañable y entretenida de la creadora de las series de Faircrace y Thrush Green, que retrara ciertos aspectos de su propia vida.
Seudónimo #retonetherfield2024
#freshfromthecountry #missread #britishclassic #leoclásicos #leeresvivir #leermola #libros #leoautoras
For the first time, she had doubts. "
Fresh from the country, 1960
Miss Read
@dean_street_press
La joven Anna Lacey se despide de la granja familiar en Essex para empezar una nueva etapa como maestra en una escuela londinense.
Llegar de un idílico y tranquilo paraje a un populoso y desangelado suburbio supone todo un reto para Ana que además debe poner a prueba los métodos de enseñanza que acaba de aprender y enfrentarse a aulas superpobladas, a colegas excéntricos y a la mano de hierro de la directora.
Además debe lidiar con su mezquina casera y sobrevivir en una minúscula y gélida habitación mientras trata de adaptarse a los desafíos y exigencias de su trabajo y su nueva vida social.
Poco a poco, su determinación y su visión optimista de la vida se abrirán camino
Una historia entrañable y entretenida de la creadora de las series de Faircrace y Thrush Green, que retrara ciertos aspectos de su propia vida.
Seudónimo #retonetherfield2024
#freshfromthecountry #missread #britishclassic #leoclásicos #leeresvivir #leermola #libros #leoautoras
August 27, 2025
This book was terrific, and I am so glad I have discovered Miss Read. I read "Fresh from the Country" with BookTuber "Jen's Reading Life" and her Cozy Reader Book Club. It is about a young school teacher from the country and chronicles her first year teaching primary school in a busy London suburb. I loved the colorful characters in this story, from Anna's boisterous class to her fellow teachers, nosy landlord, and charming family. As a teacher, I also enjoyed all of the descriptions of school life from the 1950s. It made me realize that some things in education never change, like Anna's struggle to create engaging lessons for her students while meeting all of the extra demands of her job.
I now love this author and can't wait to read and collect more of Miss Read's books in the future. Her writing is cozy and witty, and most books have the sweetest illustrations. As a former English teacher herself, Miss Read's books are mostly about village country life, featuring teachers and schoolchildren from England in the post-war years. I can't wait to start with the Fairacre or Thrush Green series soon!
I now love this author and can't wait to read and collect more of Miss Read's books in the future. Her writing is cozy and witty, and most books have the sweetest illustrations. As a former English teacher herself, Miss Read's books are mostly about village country life, featuring teachers and schoolchildren from England in the post-war years. I can't wait to start with the Fairacre or Thrush Green series soon!
January 7, 2025
Fresh from the Country is a standalone novel by Miss Read. It is the story of Anna Lacey, a country girl, and her first year working as a teacher in London. The book begins with Anna renting a room from the horribly cheap Mrs. Flynn. (She charges extra for baths!) Anna has grown up on a farm about 2 hours away from London and every Friday she takes the bus home. When I first started reading, I thought that she would fall in love with the hustle and bustle of London and eventually quit traveling home every weekend. But she misses the country life and the quiet beauty of birds and flowers and every week she is on the bus home to her family. She describes her fellow teachers as “a rum lot” and each one seems to have some peculiar habits. The book covers her first year of teaching and learning how to handle students, parents and administrators. Anna was a delightful character and I’m hoping that she shows up in some of the Fairacre or Thrush Green series of books.
November 29, 2024
Politely dull. Tale of Anna Lacey, post war, fresh from teacher training college, and on her first year as a teacher in a primary school in greater London. She grew up on a farm at a little village and unfortunately ends up with a miserly horrid landlady, which decides for her all in the town is awful, all in the country is great. Well, she's very young and inexperienced so I suppose you have to forgive her some of her prissy ways and her unforgiving black and white views on the world and people. But as a character she isn't massively interesting and her first year bimbles along inoffensive enough. Maybe if you worked in teaching you could relate to it more.
I had read her Caxley Chronicles which were better than this. Perhaps she is better with tales that span longer periods and cover more characters?
I had read her Caxley Chronicles which were better than this. Perhaps she is better with tales that span longer periods and cover more characters?
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