I was saddened to learn that Dora Jessie Saint passed away last month just a few days short of her 99th birthday. She was a schoolteacher, screenwriter, and the novelist, better known as “Miss Read”. In 1998 she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to literature. Her books focus primarily on village life in the fictional villages of Fairacre and Thursh Green in the Cotswolds, England. She developed characters that readers identify as friends and look forward to meeting in the next book. The village life she created is filled with gentle humor and commentary on how people in small towns learn to live together. She once said, “People like something to remind them that there is a happier side to life.” Her novels are like mini-vacations to a kinder, gentler time and place. JMRL owns several of her books and I recommend them for summer reading. If you like Barbara Pym or Jan Karon, you’ll like “Miss Read”.
Miss Read’s obituaries:
NY Times
Washington Post
Stella Pool
JMRL Staff