GOSSIP FROM THRUSH GREEN

by Miss Read ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 1982

Most of the familiar neighbors are at home in this latest flutter from Miss Read's beloved Cotswold village. The doctor's widow, Winnie Bailey, rather hopes that her housekeeper/companion, orphan Jenny, will decide not to marry her exuberant suitor, widower/farmer Percy. The vicar and his wife Dimity are horrified when their old hulk of a vicarage burns to the ground. (What to do? Where to go?) A night of supreme irritation is provided by four young people--two quite nice, two quite dreadful--who are house-sitting at the Hursts. (Rock'n'roll, untidiness, and the odor of ""herbs."") Dotty Harmer, frail and elderly and getting dottier, tends her assorted animals--and is hospitalized just in time to avoid serious heart trouble. (But what of her future?) And school-mistress Dorothy Watson confides her retirement plans to friend/ assistant Agnes, who's understandably upset. Will all these dilemmas be handily resolved? Of course--with stout housekeeper Betty Bell doing noisy good and malevolent sexton Albert Piggott providing grudging assistance. So Read followers can rely on Thrush Green for another soothing, predictable session of porch-rocker reading-complete with neighborly loyalty, essential goodness, and the usual decorous illustrations by J. S. Goodall.

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 1982

ISBN: 0618219137

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1982

Categories: FICTION