Tuesday, May 15, 2018

MISS READ (DORA SAINT), Fresh from the Country (1960)



I don't recall for sure how I came across this lesser-known gem from the author of the Fairacre and Thrush Green books. I have a suspicion that the knowledge came from one of you lovely readers, perhaps in the form of a suggestion that the book belonged on my Grownup School Story List? Whoever it was who put it on my radar, I'm certainly grateful, and now the book, having remained on my TBR shelves for a couple of years, has finally floated its way to the top. (And yes, this one is actually on my shelves, rather than from a dusty library storage facility, and it's a beautiful copy at that. Would that I could remember how I came to possess it...)

And it has now become perhaps my favorite of the Miss Read (real name Dora Saint) books I've read, providing a slightly surprising variation on the author's more famous work.



It's the tale of Anna Lacey, a young schoolteacher from Essex, who takes her first teaching position in an unattractive newly-built suburb. Anna has spent her life on a farm in the open country, and has difficulty adjusting to her cramped, unpleasant lodgings with a skinflint landlady, the overcrowded conditions that reign in her classroom, and the attitudes and eccentricities of some of her colleagues at the school. She also must somewhat adapt the teaching techniques she learned in her training:

She had called the children's names and marked her register with care. Fearful lest uproar should break out again she had kept her voice stern and her face unsmiling. She had mispronounced one or two names and quelled the resulting sniggers with her most daunting glances. This was not how she had envisaged meeting her new charges. She had meant to advance with happiness and confidence, as she had been told to do at college, but she felt neither at the moment, and guilty into the bargain.

Two bustling, self-important little girls had given out paper and pencils to the rest and the class settled itself, with only a minor buzzing, to filling its empty sheets with horses, ballerinas, cowboys and anything else which engaged its attention, leaving Anna free to roam up and down the aisles and to look from the windows upon the windy sunlit wastes of the new suburb which surrounded the school.

I don't often look at Amazon or Goodreads reviews of books I've already read, but in checking Amazon to confirm that this book is indeed out-of-print on both sides of the Atlantic (boo!), I happened to glance at the reviews and was a bit surprised, so I found myself checking Goodreads too. More than one reviewer called Fresh from the Country a "rose-tinted" or idealized view of teaching, which was striking to me because I felt quite the opposite. Approaching it from having read some of the Fairacre and Thrush Green books, I found this novel a bit more realistic, with just a bit of an edge even, and, apart from the fact that Anna is the kind of well-grounded, intelligent, diligent, and basically cheerful type of character one would expect from Miss Read, I didn't see anything particularly rose-tinted about this portrayal. I mean, true enough that none of the children bring drugs or guns to school, and none of them seem to be particularly abused or neglected, but then this is presumably the late 1950s and Anna is teaching young children, so I didn't find this particularly surprising.


The villages from Saint's two series are generally cozy and cheerful in the best kind of way, and the reader always feels that most people are genuinely kind and good and all will come right in the end. Here, however, Anna has some moments of real unhappiness, as well as very real and believable uncertainties about her future and her options, and there are some biting portrayals of the darker sides of human nature. I felt I was getting an honest glimpse of the real problems and frustrations of a new teacher, perhaps inspired by the authors own experiences, and I found it all terribly interesting.


As it happens, one of my favorite humorous passages in Fresh from the Country also demonstrates a bit of the acidity that appears here and there. Anna has been invited to tea with her awful landlady and two of her friends, who apparently enjoy their games of one upsmanship:

'Of course, there are a lot of people,' went on Mrs Porter, 'who criticise him. They say that he is too fond of ritual and he overdoes the incense and the genuflections, but personally I like it. After all, if one doesn't, one can always go to chapel.'

'I go to chapel,' said Mrs Adams, dangerously calm.

'Well, there you are!' said Mrs Porter, in a faintly patronising tone. Anna was instantly aware that Mrs Porter had known this all along, and watched the scene with quickened appreciation. Here was self-aggrandisement in action again.

'And you probably enjoy it very much,' continued Mrs Porter indulgently, nodding the ruched pancake. She spoke, thought Anna, as though religion were a comfortable cup of tea, Indian or China, chosen to taste.

'Naturally,' said Mrs Adams, turning a dusky pink. She took a deep breath as though about to defend her religious principles, but Mrs Flynn with commendable aplomb, proffered the tomato sandwiches and spoke hastily.

'And your little boy, Mrs Adams? Is he well?'

Mrs Adams' breath expired peacefully through smiling lips.

'Very well indeed. He's the liveliest of the three. I really don't know what we'd do without him now the others are away at school.'

'Such a handsome child,' enthused Mrs Flyrm, 'and devoted to you. His little face fairly lights up when he sees you.'

Mrs Adams simpered and looked gratified.

'Well, I must say he almost hero-worships me. It's "Mum this" and "Mum that." I can't do any wrong in that child's eyes.'

Anna, yet again, marvelled at the diversity of opinion on children. Beauty was certainly in the eye of the beholder. She had yet to find any child with the faintest desire to make a hero of herself but this was not the first mother she had heard claiming devoted allegiance so calmly.

'Frankly,' went on Mrs Adams, her voice getting stronger, 'I don't know how people manage without children. It seems so unnatural. I suppose they turn to other things for a substitute. Religion, for instance.' She gave a swift sidelong glance at Mrs Porter who, affecting complete indifference, was studying the tea-leaves at the bottom of her cup.

There is certainly plenty of humor in Miss Read's Thrush Green series, but it seemed to me there was a bit of an edge, of spitefulness, in this scene that rarely appears in the other novels, and the same is true of some of Anna's observations of her fellow teachers.

Some other reviewers—especially loyal fans of the Fairacre and Thrush Green books—found Fresh a bit depressing or slow. I didn't find it that at all, and indeed had trouble tearing myself away from it, but I can see why some Miss Read fans might feel that way. And perhaps that sort of reaction is why she never seems to have written in the same mode again, but oh, I can't help thinking what a pleasure it would have been to have a whole series about Anna and her development as a teacher!

With the above qualification for Miss Read fans, I do very much recommend this book. Fans of grownup school stories more generally, for example, or of stories of young women starting out in their careers, may find this right up their alley. Those who enjoyed Mabel Esther Allan's Here We Go Round, for example, might particularly take note. 

I should point out that this novel, like many of the other Miss Read books, is beautifully illustrated by J. S. (John Strickland) Goodall. (I meant to show you some of the illustrations, but my copy is a tightly bound American edition which doesn't lend itself at all to being placed flat on a scanner.)

I'm curious if any of you have already read this book, and if so, what was your reaction?

24 comments:

  1. It is many years since I read Fresh From the Country - I had an orgy of Miss Read reading in the early 70s when I was working in public libraries, and we always - in those far-off balmy days when public libraries had money - stocked multiple copies of her titles. I was a fairly uncritical reader then, but I remember noting the difference between this one and the main 'Village' series which was certainly viewed through rose tinted specs, I felt. Thrush Green had a bit more edge, and I think Dora S herself liked the freedom of not using the first person narrator, which she had become rather stuck with at Fairacre.
    I treated myself to the TG series a year or 2 ago, and reread them all, but didn't feel the need to revisit Fairacre. But I may look out for this one!

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    1. I think you might enjoy this one, Ruth. It's just a shame it isn't as readily available as the others. I've gradually been working my way through the Thrush Green series and enjoy them very much, but like you have had more trouble engaging with Fairacre. Interesting the variety of tones Saint was able to write in.

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  2. I think that maybe both the series, and this standalone may be showing the truth. The series were set in small villages, where nothing much had changed for ages. Though that doesn't mean no problems or ornery characters, still the basic life is peaceful and kindly. Fresh from the Country may be showing life in a place very different from the villages. A place where perhaps not everyone has family they can trace for generations, a place where life changes with new inhabitants. A more 'modern' life. I did read this many years ago. I'm now reading about a village which may become part of a 'New Town.' The Native Heath by Elizabeth Fair. I wonder if I heard about it from you. Thanks for this wonderful review.

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    1. You may well have heard of Elizabeth Fair from me, Nan. It's one of the Furrowed Middlebrow titles from Dean Street Press, so I do hope you enjoy it!

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  3. I too worked in a public library in the 70s and it was here I found Miss Read. I have continued to read the books ever since. I found them especially good after some major surgery, a comforting read at a difficult time. I was excited to read your review of Fresh from the country as I don’t think I have read this book and if I have I have forgotten all about it. I have managed to track down a copy in the Open Library and I am currently reading a new (to me) Miss Read book after all these years. Thank you for reviewing this book.
    Anne

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    1. Yes, her books are wonderful for difficult times, aren't they? I'm so glad you are able to read a copy, and hope you enjoy it!

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  4. I found most of the Fairacre and Thrush Green books a little too cosy, and like you, preferred this one. I also remember also liking 'Further Afield' which although in the Fairacre series, takes Miss Read on holiday with a friend to Crete. Both of these books seemed to have a little more edge than the mainstream titles.

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    1. I'm definitely making a note of Further Afield, Michelle Ann. That does sound like fun. Thanks for the recommendation!

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  5. That's certainly true, Nan. Even the primary schools I went to from 1954-60 on the edge of a town on the south coast of England had recognisable elements of the Fairacre School. We had more age-group classes, because there were more of us, of course, but the teachers were definitely in the Miss Read mode. The situation in FFTC is definitely much more urban, in a new town, modern way - a very different sort of town from the seaside resort I grew up in...

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    1. Thanks so much for taking the time to tell me this. Lucky you!

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    2. That's so interesting, Ruth. My Midwestern American school in the 1970s bore no resemblance at all to Miss Read, so it's fun to hear what it was like for you.

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  6. I have managed to track down a copy at one of my libraries, and look forward to reading it - many thanks for the tip, Scott.
    Tom

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  7. Oh, wow, I didn't know about this. I've loved Miss Read since I was a teenager and have all the Fairacre and Thrush Green books, very soothing and comforting indeed. This sounds like something between those and To Sir With Love, and therefore a must-read (see what I did there?!).

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  8. I read it so long ago that it barely registers - its' available as an ebook from Open Library, and I'm currently on the waitlist.

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  9. I have read Fresh from the Country a couple of times. The urban feel is so different from the rural/village Fairacre and Thrush Green, but enjoyable. And for those who feel Miss Read doesn't deal with serious issues, how about Farther Afield or No Holly for Miss Quinn. And many of the books deal with things like child neglect, poverty, infidelity, and more.

    I also need to report on a mystery I just finished, Fire in the Thatch by E. C. R. Lorac who is on your English list under her real name, with a cross reference. Set in the closing days of WWII, the first 4 chapters, before the murder, are a delightful Middlebrow novel dealing with the impact of the war on the home front, including a husband captured in Burma, evacuees, London vs rural issues, love of the land, class issues, and more. Reminds me of several of the Furrowed Middlebrow reissues. Then suddenly Scotland Yard is investigating the murder, and while I would have preferred it to remain a straight middlebrow novel, the mystery is quite good. Highly recommended. Far more my cup of tea than Murder By Matchlight, the only Lorac book I had previously read. (Lorac is Carol spelled backwards.)

    Jerri

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    1. For me, Jerri, I think it's not a question of dealing with serious issues, but only that one always knows with Miss Read's books everything will work out for the best. Which is what makes them wonderful comfort reading, of course.

      Thanks for the mention of Fire in the Thatch. I've had my eye on that one and hope to check it out soon!

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    2. The first bit reminded me of Company in the Evening.

      Jerri

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  10. I've got Fresh from the Country in a "first American edition" hardback complete with dust cover. I think I found it in a used book store several years ago. I was introduced to Miss Read via the Common Reader and started off with the Thrush Green books and then moved on to Fairacre. I've also got her books of reminiscences about her childhood. I like to re-read Fresh From the Country from time to time. It's a good change of pace from the other series. It has the same appreciation of the natural world and acceptance of human foibles as all of her other works, but it is interesting in that the main character is young and starting out, as opposed to either Miss Read at Fairacre or any of the characters in Thrush Green, really.

    I've been browsing your blog for a couple of months. Thanks for bringing so many authors to my attention! Christie

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    1. Thank you, Christie! Apologies for taking so long to reply. I think you sum up Miss Read very well with the "acceptance of human foibles"--somehow even when she's being funny, one always feels the compassion and friendliness in the humor.

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  11. I just finished "Fresh from the Country," which I had not known of until I read your blog. And I thought I knew most of Miss Read's books. Scott, thank you so very much for the heads-up; I loved it - read it all through in only two sittings!
    I used to buy her books for my mother - oh, she would have loved this one!
    I am rather sorry it is a "stand-alone" title - for although I can pretty much guess about Anna and Tom, I would love to read more. Thanks again!
    Tom

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    1. So glad I led you to a new title, Tom, and that you were able to find it and enjoyed it. I agree, it makes one yearn for a whole Anna series.

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  12. As a longtime fan and collector of Miss Read books, I too have enjoyed this title. Some find her books cloying, I find them an interesting slice of life. Realistic? Some parts no, but the poverty and violence, worldview, and limitations she documents certainly makes today's England more understandable. Thank you for this nice site.

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