VILLAGE CHRISTMAS

by Miss Read ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

The Miss Read regulars, who know her English village well, are numberless. However, an alert TV scenarist could adapt this and introduce the non-reading public to Fairacre. It is the sort of visual action/idea story blended with sentiment that made Jack Schaefer's Stubby Pringle's Christmas (1964) just right for Chritmas. Miss Margaret Waters is sturdy and dominant, while Miss Mary, who grew old in her elder sister's stern shadow, has her giddy moments and entertains rebellious thoughts about their clock and calendar schedule. Next door to them, a new family from the city has been shaking their countrybred convictions about keeping oneself to oneself. The young mother is pregnant, blowzy, breezy and a borrower without a taste for housework or respect for country reticence. Her three little girls are beautiful and when the oldest arrives on Christmas Day to beg the Waters' help for the mother, who has entered labor, the standoffish of Fairacre find out once again about the satisfactions of Christmas giving. As a seasonal story and a sales/circulation favorite, this is as good as gold.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1966

Categories: FICTION