Farewell to Fairacre: The eleventh novel in the Fairacre series - Tapa blanda

Miss Read must face the future in another delightful slice of village life...

Now that Fairacre school no longer faces the threat of closure, Miss Read is looking forward to a few more years of teaching before retirement. But the best-laid plans often go awry. Unexpectedly, her health begins to fail and she faces some tough decisions about her future.

Meanwhile, rumours abound about Miss Read's old friend Mr Mawne, now a widower; a handsome newcomer to the village takes a shine to the stalwart headmistress; Miss Read keeps a watchful eye on the courtship of a friend; and village life goes on.

Miss Read, or in real life Dora Saint, was a teacher by profession who started writing after the second world war, beginning with light essays written for Punch and other journals. She then wrote on educational and country matters and worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC. Miss Read was married to a schoolmaster for sixty-four years until his death in 2004, and they had one daughter.

Miss Read was awarded an MBE in the 1998 New Year Honours list for her services to literature, She was the author of many immensely popular books, including two autobiographical works, but it was her novels of English rural life for which she was best known. The first of these Village School, was published in 1955, and Miss Read continued to write about the fictional villages of Fairacre and Thrush Green for many years. She lived near Newbury in Berkshire until her death in 2012.