Do You like book Thrush Green (2002)?
I have been meaning to try one of the Miss Read books for years after sampling one long ago and not being able to get into it. I liked this but didn't love it. Every year on May 1 (the book was written in 1959, the year I was born), the sleepy little English town of Thrush Green gets excited over the small fair that stops along the way to a bigger fair in London. This book introduces us to the townspeople and the fair people over the course of one fine day when the fair is in town though we do get plenty of flashbacks and interesting information about the history of each person, There is a little romance too. From the little boy who might miss the fair due to having a rash to the young woman caring for him who was left at the altar and might be interested in the young doctor who is treating the boy to the family that owns the fair that plans to close it down after this year, to a pair of ladies living together in anything but fairness and peace, we are privvy to the thoughts and activities of the people in this charming little town though I can see clearly why I will only live in large cities and never in small towns (tried it, hated it).
—Terri Lynn
This novel is utterly delightful. Set in a bucolic English village in the mid-twentieth century, Thrush Green contains a set of characters whose lives deliciously entwine for one special day in May when a traveling fair stops for a night. Eager bright-eyed schoolchildren, young couples in love, cheaters, drunks, and aged folk coming to terms with death are all present and accounted for. It's an idealized view of life, yet the realities of the world are not forgotten by Miss Read. I spent much of the book wishing that I could find a Thrush Green of my own to settle down in for life.
—Stephanie
One of the many reasons I love Miss Read is the fact that her books contain people of all ages, and she treats them all with amused affection. Here we have the story of young Molly and Ben, the gypsy boy who only comes to Thrush Green one day out of every year, when the traveling fair his grandmother presides over comes to town. But we also have Joan and Dr. Lovell, fully adult characters who will also find love. And we see old Dr. Bailey and his wife, who are reaching the end of their years together, still full of love and joy but tinged a bit with remembrance of past days. None of this is forced, as all these people naturally converge on tiny Thrush Green, interacting and influencing each other, sometimes without recognizing it. Real people living real lives. Just lovely.I also love how well she writes about nature. She describes the trees greening up in spring individually, knowing that beech, sycamore and elm don't all look alike or come into bud at the same time. Her descriptions or walks through the countryside or scenes of the village at night are worth savoring. Miss Read's books are slow and sweet and full of humanity. Always a pleasure to read, always sad to finish. Fortunately there are many to enjoy.
—Teri-k
