Tyler S Row

There are a great many books in which Something Happens; there are a lot of authors who can keep us riveted with a Great Story. The "Miss Read" series is concerned with ordinary people in a few small towns, very firmly rooted in time. Memories of the oldest inhabitants of these places will stretch back to before the Great War; the youngest characters in the latest books will be moving into the 60's. And yet the trivial concerns of Miss Read's characters become a big deal to her readers. One can divide the literate world into people who love these books and people who are not perceptive enough to appreciate them. One does not have to read too many of these books before one is convinced that one lives there, and that all these people are your neighbors. This book is #9 in the Fairacre series, but each book stands alone and can be appreciated for the gem that it is. Two of the cottages of Tyler's Row have become vacant and the old owner, tired of haggling with the remaining two tenants, decides to sell. An elderly couple, the schoolmaster of Caxley and his wife, decide to buy it and begin to renovate it with a view to retirement. Conflict with the tenants makes their dream of a peaceful little home seem like a pipe dream. The whole village of Fairacre is mesmerized by the drama. To top it off, the wife discovers a growth on her neck--does this herald something more serious? Meanwhile the schoolteacher, our beloved first person narrator, fends off one more attempt by her old college chum to marry her off to a suitable man. A new resident family insists on starting a Parent-Teacher Association. There's a lost Victorian poet, who never bathed, who draws together two lost people who are researching his life. There's a lost cat, who returns. This isn't THE DA VINCI CODE--it's way better.

A friend introduced me to Miss Read a few years back with Village School. I was hooked at once. At the time, there were only 6 titles in the Fairacre series available new and 6 titles in the Thrush Green. I read those and had to go to Ebay and find the remaining books she has had published. They were all wonderful and I reread them every year or so. As a retired teacher of young children I am amazed at how children are so alike not only from one location to the next, but through the years as well. They have since released several more titles by this wonderful author. They are all well worth your time and money. Tyler's row is book number 8 in the Fairacre series. I enjoyed it very much.

Miss Read is a wonderful author who brings bits of English country life alive. Her stories are charming, her characters utterly wonderful...having just taken a trip to the English Cotswolds, where most of her stories are based, we experienced first-hand the small village life she depicts so aptly in all her books. She's a great choice for a rainy afternoon, curled by the fire