Loss of another favourite author - Miss Read/Dora Saint including Bibliography

Somehow I missed hearing about the death of Miss Read pseudonym of Dora Saint,  on 7th April this year.  It came to my attention a couple of days ago, and despite her making the good age of 98, almost 99, still made me sad.  With her passing, another writer leaves us, who in her writings brought memories of a certain sort of England and its rural village life. This may not be a type of England that all people experienced, but it was one that she enjoyed for some years in her youth, and wanted to preserve in words and pass on to others in her fictional villages of Fairacre and Thrush Green.

Dora Jessie Saint, so much better known to her readers as Miss Read actually started her life in London,(See part 1 of her autobiography as a child A Fortunate Grandchild which describe her days as a London child) and moved to the country when her family moved to the countryside to aid her mother's health. From 1921 to 1924 she went to the local village school and she clearly made many friends and found living in a small community fun (as can be seen in Time Remembered the 2nd part of her autobiography as a child). At school she was good at both reading and essay writing, and went on to follow her father into the world of teaching. She taught in Middlesex from 1933 - 1940 when she married Douglas Saint, and after the war, although doing occasional supply  teaching, turned more to writing, including articles for magazines, and scripts for the BBC schools service.

The first of the Fairacre novels, Village School, was published in 1955. The rest of the series then followed:

Village Diary (1957)

Storm in the Village (1958)
Over the Gate (1964)
Village Christmas (1966)
The Fairacre Festival (1968)
Tylers Row (1972)
The Christmas Mouse (1973)
Farther afield (1974)
Village Affairs (1977)
Village Centenary (1980)
Summer at Fairacre (1984)
Changes at Fairacre (1991)
Fairwell to Fairacre (1993)
A Peaceful Retirement (1996)
Chronicles of Fairacre: Omnibus (1972)
Further Chronicles of Fairacre: Omnibus (1972)

Mrs Pringle (1989)

Fairacre RoundaboutL omnibus (1990)

Miss Read's Christmas Tales: Omnibus (1990)
Christmas at Fairacre: Omnibus (1991)
Miss Read chronicles Giftset: Omnibus (1992)

Village Christmas/The Christmas Mouse: Omnibus (1993)(2003)

Fairacre Affairs omnibus (1997)
The Last Chronicle of Fairacre: Omnibus (2001)

Storm in the village/The fairacre festival:omnibus (2002)

Miss Reads other well known Series was her Thrush Green set of books, another rural sequence:

Thrush Green (1959)Winter in Thrush Green (1961)
News from Thrush Green (1970)
Battles at Thrush Green (1975)
Return to thrush Green (1978)
Gossip from Thrush Green (1981)
Affairs at Thrush Green (1983)
At Home at thrush Green (1985)
The School at thrush Green (1987)
Friends at Thrush Green (1990)
Celebrations at Thrush Green(1992)
The year at thrush Green(1995)
Christmas at thrush Green(2009)

Life at thrush Green - Omnibus (1984)
More Stories from Thrush Green: Omnibus (1985)

The World of thrush Green: Omnibus (1988)
Tales from Thrush Green: Omnibus (1994)

Encounters at Thrush Green: Omnibus: (1998)
The Villagers of Thrush Green (1999)

Farewell Thrush Green: omnibus (2000)

Apart from her 2 main series of books set in fiction country villages around village schools, Miss Read also wrote some other books. The following complete the list.

Caxley Chronicles

The Market Square (1966)

The Howards of Caxley (1967)

The Caxley Chronciles (Omnibus of above) 1999

Other novels

Fresh from the Country (1955)

Hobby Horse Cottage(1958)

Miss Clare Remembers(1962)

Tiggy (1971)

Emily Davis (1971)
Hob and the Horse Bat (1974)
Animal Boy (1975)
No Holly for Miss Quinn (1976)
The White Robin (1979)

Collections/Children

Country Bunch (1963) (1992)

The Little Red Bus & Other Rhyming Stories (1991)

Miss Read's Christmas Book (1992)

Tales from a Village School (1994)
A Country Christmas (2006)

Non-Fiction including autobiographical works

Miss Read's Country Cooking: (1969)

A Fortunate Grandchild (1982)
Time Remembered (1986)
The English Vicarage Garden: 30 Gardens of Beauty and Inspiration (1988)

Miss Read wrote about the simple, the good things in life - friendship, the countryside, nature, and harmless gossip.  She was realistic about the downs as well as the ups in village life, but she did let good prevail. Her stories had a charm and appeal that many appreciated and her characters had values and a stability that many still seek out in a fast changing world. I feel sure her work will be appreciated for many years to come. Many of her books we delightfully illustrated by John Goodall

Flower Fairies of the Summer

The Song of the Honeysuckle Fairy


The lane is deep, the bank is steep
The tangled hedge is high;
and clinging, twisting, up I creep,
and climb towards the sky.
O Honeysuckle, mounting high!
OWoodbine, climbing to the sky!

                                                             

The People in the lane below
Look up and see me there,
Where I my honey trumpets blow,
Whose sweetness fills the air.                                                                  
O Honeysuckle, waving there!
OWoodbine, scenting all the air!

The Song of the Poppy Fairy                                                                                                

The green wheat's a-growing,
The lark sings on high;
In scarlet silk a-glowing,
Here stand I.

The wheat's turning yellow,
Ripening for sheaves;
I hear the little fellow
Who scares the bird thieves

                                    

Now the harvest's ended,
The wheat-field is bare;
But still, red and splendid,
I am there.


These prints come from a 1920's edition of Flower Fairies of the Summer by Cicely Mary Barker.  The book binding had lost its spine, and was badly worn, and the book was falling apart.  The plates however were still in nice condition. They make a lovely set of single sided 1920's colour flower fairies plates, suitable for mounting and framing. The page size is approximately 5.5" x 4". We have available for sale at 4.00GBP each plus P&P (available individually or grouped). e-mail us at peakirkbooks@btinternet.com to purchase.

The Heather Fairy
The Honeysuckle Fairy
The Travellers Joy Fairy
The Greater Knapweed Fairy
The Scarlet Pimpernel Fairy
The Wild Thyme Fairy                                                                          
The Thistle Fairy

The Scabious Fairy                                                                            
The Toadflax Fairy
The Yarrow Fairy
The White Campion Fairy
The Nightshade Fairy
The Poppy Fairy

Words Gone By - The Vintage Paper Girls

Well we have done it - Annette and I have now officially 'launched' our new business, and this is what we are calling ourselves.  Words Gone By - The Vintage Paper Girls (Not specifying whether it is us or the paper that is Vintage!). When I say 'launched' what I really mean is spent some money on it thus committed ourselves to the business. However we are both excited about it and so far thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We are ploughing through the necessary 'boring stuff' so that we can get to the good bit, enjoying wading through the goods that we are buying. It is quite a long time since I have started up a business - Peakirk Books began in 1997, and although that feels like yesterday to me, some things have changed, and I had forgotten about some of the paperwork that is demanded of you. However we are getting through it and are nearly out the other side. To cheer ourselves up we went to an auction to do some buying of goodies that we felt would be appropriate to sell in our new business, and were amazed at what was available. However we weren't alone in finding such things interesting, and the bidding was very competitive.  I have also squirrelled away various bits and pieces over the years (at long last my hatred of throwing things away is coming into its own) so I think Annette my be quite surprised at the odd bits and pieces I produce over time.  Some of course will be quite worthless, but others I hope will be of use to be people - you never know quite what people are seeking.   It is both amazing and interesting  just what people do collect, and makes the world such a diverse place with people having such  varied interests.  It also keeps so much more of the past, and our social history, alive and in our memories.

We intend selling via 3 mediums.  Our main regular sales will be via ebay. This will enable our various small bits and pieces to reach a world wide audience, thus hopefully help us reach a variety of collectors, family tree researchers, etc.  We intend to take up the name Vintage Paper Girls as soon as our Bank account comes through (I sat through my hours interview with the Business Account Manager last week and came out with my head spinning) and am now just waiting for the bank account to be set up so that we can get the ebay account up and running then we will be off!  The second medium will be local ie Norfolk, Fairs.  Here we intend selling more general items that we find, and probably more visually attractive ones on stalls around this locality.  As soon as we have some booked I will put on here where we will be.I have collected some great bits already.  Thirdly I will add some ephemera to the Peakirk Books stand at the PBFA book fairs that we do, when I am allowed to increase my stand to a larger stand - I am currently investigating where the stands can be increased in size, and am hoping that the June fair at The Heart of England will allow me to have a larger stand, to get started.  Here we would have strictly printed matter & ephemera in line with PBFA book fairs. We see these 3 outlets working well concurrently, and hopefully leading to a thriving 'bolt on' business to add to our main one ie Peakirk books.  Meanwhile, you will probably see me next flat our asleep on the floor, happy but exhausted!

Keep an eye on our blog for further news!

How Time Flies

It is commonly said that as you get older time goes more quickly - and never has it been more true than in my case.  At this rate if I live to be 80, I shall be a total whirlwind.  Maybe it is just in my head, but I have so much to do, I never know where to start. This wouldn't be so bad if I had the energy to match - this is a definite design fault in the human race. When you are young you have bags of energy - and not enough to do, thus the perpetual cry of the young - I'm bored! I remember saying this myself. Then, as you become older, the energy banks drain as you have so many more tasks to accomplish.

                                                                       

The other problem is that I actually want to do so much more.  The message hasn't actually reached my brain yet that I am getting older. Again, twenty or thirty years or so ago, I remember hearing people say 'You get older but don't feel any older' and I would nod in agreement, not fully realising what they meant - but it is true, you don't feel older mentally. When people talk about getting older, to me they are talking about other people.   I hear the words, but inside I am still the twenty something year old that I was, not the fifty something year old that I am now (there I have said it), and I expect to be able to do the same as I could then, ie a full time job as a business partner, be busy at weekends, start up a new business (as I am doing), do the housework (to a fashion), the gardening (to a lesser fashion) help with the decorating, walk two active dogs, you get the picture and get cross with myself when things don't get done properly. Obviously I don't do all these things alone, Jeff is a partner in all the home chores as well as the  work chores, and fortunately for me, is energetic, but I have to realise the limit to the hours in a day!

                                                                                 



Bookselling is a time consuming labour intensive occupation. I remember when we had a shop people had an image of booksellers (ie me) just sitting in a shop reading books all day - and maybe once this might have happened, but I doubt it, as there are always things to do. Certainly in this day of computers, there is no time, sadly, for sitting around book reading - that is a treat I usually reserve for bed time or in the bath. A large amount of my time is spent now in front of a computer.  All the cataloguing is done there, as is the order processing, and adding pictures to records. Also updating our website, our catalogue and of course this blog are computer tasks, so computer work must account for well over half of my week.  Other regular tasks comprise of looking for books in the stock room (why oh why do books always seem to move from the place where we left them?) , book buying - whether from house calls, going through lists that people send us, going out to hunt in bookshops etc (something I love to do but have little time for), going through catalogues we are sent etc. Also booking new stock in, and contacting customers when books we have ordered in for them have arrived. Occasionally I get trips out to auctions - rare, and when they come around they are very time consuming as they usually take up a couple of days, 1 to view and another to return and bid.

                                                                             

Then there are book fairs - the most time consuming of all.  First - the decision which books to take.  We try to take the books we think will appeal to the customers we expect to see, but that is 25% knowledge, 75% guesswork, so we can get it completely wrong.  This is followed by a great deal of packing - and you can guarantee that a book that is packed, will then  be ordered on the internet, and need digging out before we go. Then, having got house sitters in place to look after the dogs and the house, we trek off with a car load of books and shelving, often having booked accommodation as the fair will require an overnight stay. The fair itself will require a couple of hours stand preparation, and then a day or 2 fair follows, which is enjoyable as we get to meet customers, but tiring, and then we dismantle the stall again and head for home. The next week sees us trying to get the books back onto the right shelves.  Now, none of this is moaning, even if that is what it sounds like, it just explains the time consumed - and how time intensive the job is.  People say to us 'How nice going to York, or Harrogate or Bath for the weekend - they don't understand - we don't see the place - we see the accomodation and the hall we are standing in!

                                                                             
                                                                           

OK - so the last picture is rather creative - but its a book and its a fair!

So as you can see our job alone takes up a good deal of time, and that's before we squeeze in the rest of life - but then, we shall not get bored, and that's a good thing. People do say, if you want to get something done, ask a busy person - still not quite sure why - presume its because they have to be really organised, but there is some truth in it.  So time may continue to fly, and we may continue to get busier and busier, but at least we are living!

Developments Afoot!

I wrote a little while ago about our possible development into selling vintage toys.  Well, things never go quite as you expect. My mind has been floating around - as it does, exploring various options, and I have been chatting to people, and have eventually settled on a variation on a theme.

To start with, I wish to reassure all my loyal customers - Peakirk Books is safe and going nowhere. My new little venture is purely an add on. I love Peakirk Books and all it entails - the children's books especially are my passion, and between us Jeff and I really enjoy what we do.  To be honest Jeff and I have plenty to keep us busy, but unfortunately, with the recession, the advent of of ebooks, and the development of cheap and cheerful mega listers, times are much harder for us, as they are for many small businesses.   Thus, so as not to rest on our laurels and to add another string to our bow, (metaphors are such fun) I have joined together with another female seller in the development of a small business, with the aim of selling interesting ephemera, both adult & Juvenile.  For those of you unfamiliar with ephemera it is quite an elusive subject, but essentially is Transitory & printed matter, that was never really meant to be kept, and takes in a whole range of items - for example greetings cards, brochures, advertising materials, posters, leaflets, letters, photographs, bookmarks, - the list goes on. We will be quite broad in our collection so as to take in old jigsaws etc as we both like childrens' materials/toys - it just depends what appears.

My partner in this venture may be known to some, as she already sells some ephemera on ebay. Her name is Annette York and sells on ebay.  She lives in Norfolk too, just as well really, so we plan to go out together ephemera hunting (as well as book hunting obviously) and then we will sell the ephemera jointly on ebay, as well as at local fairs and see how it develops.  I will find it interesting to learn about this 'new to me' field. I have seen some of Annette's Ephemera purchases when we have been to auctions and must admit to finding them extremely interesting, which did get my nose twitching initially.

Anyhow, we are currently at the initial stages of setting up the business - all the practical boring bits have to be gone through - registering, setting up bank accounts etc etc. before we can get to the interesting bit.  Once we actually start trading I will announce the name and update any readers out there, with our progress!  Are we mad doing this in a recession? Who knows.