Thrush Green
Thrush Green is a series of novels by the English writer Miss Read .
She tells stories about the people of the Thrush Green village.
title
- 1959 One Day in May (Thrush Green)
- 1961 Winter in the Country (Winter in Thrush Green)
- 1978 Harold on Free Feet (Return to Thrush Green)
- 1981 Blasphemers and Gossipers (Gossip from Thrush Green)
- 1983 Summer Sorrow and Winter Joy (Affairs at Thrush Green)
- 1990 Good Neighbors and Other Friends (Friends at Thrush Green)
- 1995 Turbulence in the Country (The Year at Thrush Green)
Characters
Harold and Isobel Shoosmith
Harold previously worked in Africa and moved to Thrush Green after his retirement because there the missionary Nathaniel Patten, whom he greatly admired, was born and for whom he organized a statue in the village square. He is very attractive and quite a few women would have considered themselves lucky to be able to marry him. He is a supportive member of the community, helpful and generous, and lives in a very nice house.
Isobel is a very attractive woman in her late 50s. She used to go to boarding school with Agnes Fogerty. After the death of her first husband, she spent a long time looking for a house in Thrush Green. Harold helped her find it, but it was unsuccessful. However, the two fell in love and got married. Isobel moved into Harold's house and her house search was over.
Betty Bell
Betty is the chatterbox cleaning lady of Harold and Isobel, Dotty Harmer and various households and the school. Since she gets around a lot, she also learns a lot. She carries on this village gossip, whether you want to hear it or not, while she is busy with cleaning rags and vacuum cleaner. Basically she's a good soul.
Dotty Harmer
Dotty is a crazy old maid, tastelessly dressed, who loves animals more than anything and can be described as an eco-freak. She lives in a house in Lulling Forest together with a goat, her dog Flossie, various cats and chickens. Your house is disorganized, messy, and a little dirty. With the best of intentions, she makes elixirs, potions, jams and juices that are supposed to taste, strengthen and heal. However, they cause “Dotty's liquor” among consumers, a well-known and feared intestinal infection in Thrush Green and the surrounding area. If the recipient is wise, the contents of many a glass end up in the nearest bush, where it can no longer cause any damage. Dotty's goat provides Ella with milk. At some point, her niece Connie moves in with her so that Dotty is no longer unsupervised and does not have to move into the old people's home. Dotty's father used to be the feared and hated village school teacher who influenced all children, especially his daughter, for years to come with beatings and insults.
- Kit Armitage and Connie Armitage, b. Harmer
Kit used to live in Thrush Green, but then went abroad and comes back when he is around 70 years old. He is looking for a house and befriends Connie. He falls in love with her and they get married. He moves into Dotty's house, an annex is built for Dotty, and Connie and Kit live in the house.
Connie is Dotty's niece. She owns a horse-breeding farm, which she has to sell at some point and moves in with her aunt so that she can be under supervision. She falls in love with Kit and at first neither of them dare to admit their affection.
- Charles and Dimity Henstock
Charles is the pastor of St. Andrews, the Church of Thrush Green, later his parish expands to include Nidden, Lulling and Lulling Forst. He is around his late fifties, bald and a completely naive and good-natured person who only sees the good in his fellow men and is not disappointed with this point of view. But when the going gets tough, he can also prevail. His first wife died and he lived alone for many years, only looked after by a sloppy and lazy housekeeper in a gloomy Victorian house that was drafty and impossible to heat. At some point he met Dimity and courted her. The two married.
Dimity lived in a house with her best friend Ella Bembridge. Dimity is good-natured, calm, and adaptable. She feels sorry for Charles, and since it is not so bad to be a pastor's wife, she listens to his courtship and marries him. When the two went away for a few days, the parsonage burned down overnight. The two of them sublet for a long time until the church sponsored a wonderful house in Lulling.
Ella Bembridge
Ella is a tall, fat woman who rolls sloppy cigarettes, smokes a lot and lived with Dimity for a long time. She looks a bit harsh on the outside, but is a very good and reliable friend. Ella does a lot of handicrafts and handicrafts. She makes her friends happy for Christmas, for example. B. with self-woven, scratchy scarves that they rarely or never wear. She is supplied with goat milk from Dotty.
Winnie Bailey and Jenny
Winnie is the widow of the village doctor Dr. Donald Bailey. She knows everyone in the village and has always been a secretive doctor's wife, and everyone in Thrush Green values her. She took Jenny in as her housekeeper and friend.
Jenny is Winnie's housekeeper, friend and roommate. When Jenny was completely alone after the death of her parents, Winnie took her to her. Jenny is courted by Percy Hodge for a while, but decides to live a peaceful life in the doctor's widow's house.
Edward and Joan Young
Edward is the architect in the village. He is designing and building the new retirement home where the sombre Victorian rectory had stood after the church sold the land to the community. A winter garden-like extension is being built, but as it turns out later, it is not big enough. Edward is a perfectionist and blames himself for bad planning and the fact that the annex has become too small.
Joan is Edward's wife. She is a housewife and they have a son, Paul. Joan's parents move into the house - it actually belongs to them. The stables are being converted and two beautiful apartments are being built. First the father dies, a few years later the mother.
Ben and Molly Curdle, b. Piggott
Ben is the grandson of the former fairground owner and highly respected gypsy Mrs. Anne Curdle, who has passed away and is buried in the Thrush Green cemetery. After his parents died at an early age, Ben wandered the country with his grandmother and went to the fair. They came to Thrush Green every May 1st and at some point Ben and Molly fell in love. They had to wait a year before they could finally get together. Ben is tall, dark-haired, calm and shy. Because business was bad for such a small fair, they sold everything for a good price, made their home in the village and live in one of the converted apartments with the boys. Ben found a job as a car mechanic. He is very reliable. He and Molly have a son, George. They later have a daughter, whom they name Anne, after his grandmother, because they hope that the little one has the good, strong character of their great-grandmother.
Molly is the daughter of Albert Piggott and his first wife. She did the housework for her father all the years after her mother's death. But when she married Ben and drove through the country with him, that was over. Upon returning to Thrush Green, she becomes the Youngs' housekeeper. After all, she used to be Paul Young's nanny. At first Molly despises her father Albert's second wife, but at some point she comes to appreciate her.
Albert and Nelly Piggott
Albert is the cemetery keeper, sexton and gravedigger in the village. He is a grouchy, gaunt and unkempt guy who goes down for a beer in the morning as soon as the pub The two pheasants open. He's not bothered about work, and his house has been a rotten hole since his wife died and his daughter Molly stopped looking after him. He has stomach problems from drinking beer all the time and eating out. One day his old schoolmate from childhood, Nelly, suddenly appears at his door. Nelly charms him and they get married.
Nelly is Albert's second wife. One day, years later, she comes out of nowhere and marries Albert to be cared for. There can be no talk of love between the two, it should be a tolerated community of convenience. Nelly is buxom and has a good hundred pounds. She cooks excellent and extremely rich and Viennese Albert's house until it shines. At some point she leaves Albert and moves to the “Heizölkerl”, the charming Charlie, the man who brings the heating oil, and to whom she was addicted for several years. One day she stands at Albert's door again and is reluctantly accepted. But shortly afterwards she leaves her husband a second time and moves back to Charlie. He cheats on her, throws her out and marries someone else. After Nelly has been through the whole village because of her volatility, it is difficult for her to be accepted a second time. It is considered vulgar and dishonorable, but gradually works its way back. She finds a substitute job in the kitchen of the Fuchsienbusches, a tea room in Lulling. Because of her cooking, cleaning and baking skills, she hits it so well that she becomes a co-owner. When the owner falls ill and dies, Nelly inherits the fuchsia bush and is henceforth respected again and can earn her own money to be independent from Albert. She is absorbed in her work and is very happy.
Percy and Gladys Hodge, b. Lilly
Percy is the farmer in the village. He supplies the community with campfire potatoes on Guy Fawkes Day and has been on the lookout for a bride ever since the death of his beloved wife Gertie. Since he is of an advanced age, he makes a fool of himself by courting Jenny for a few weeks. When she decides against him and stays with Winnie Bailey, he tries Doris, a waitress in a bar in Lulling. The two get married, but the marriage is not happy. Doris leaves him and they get divorced. Again looking for a bride, he tries the young, anti-social Emily Cooke. However, she secretly marries a man from the area, and Percy tries Doreen Lilly. When she gets sick, he drives Gladys Lilly, Doreen's mother, to the hospital several times and the two become friends. Gladys and Percy get married, and the ridiculous bridal shows are over. Percy has a good heart and really just wants to be taken care of, he's not a bad guy.
Bertha, Ada and Violet Lovelock
Three skinny young, well-to-do sisters between seventy and eighty who live in an old house in Lulling, right next to the fuchsia bush. They hoard silver in every form, which they talk about from the residents of Thrush Green and Lulling on various visits or simply take it with them spontaneously without their knowledge or approval. Bertha is the oldest, Ada the middle one and Violet the youngest. She regulates all the affairs of the sisters. All three were never married. However, Violet was in love with Kit Armitage in her youth. The three of them are extremely stingy and mainly allow themselves fat-free and cold food because it does not cost electricity to prepare. Bertha starts to get a bit senile at some point. She steals pastries and small jam jars from the fuchsia bush and suddenly hoards large parts of the household and jewelry in her room. One day Violet takes on the thankless task of returning their treasures to all previous owners of the silver items.
Dorothy Watson
Dorothy was the headmistress of the Thrush Green Village School for years. She lived as a maid in the teacher's house next to the school. When she hurt her hip one day, her second teacher, Agnes Fogerty, takes care of her. When their room is to be rented to someone else, Dorothy offers to move into the teacher's house, and the two decide to retire soon. However, that will be postponed by a few years, but at some point the two of them leave Thrush Green and move into a house in Barton on Sea, their idea of paradise. There Dorothy is a little in love with her blind neighbor Teddy, to whom she reads from daily newspapers. When the other neighbor marries, Dorothy is badly bent, but gets over it.
Agnes Fogerty
For years Agnes was the second teacher at the village school and taught the little ones. She lived in a very nice room outside of Thrush Green, but when her landlady announced her own needs, she moved in with Dorothy in the teacher's house. After retirement, she and her friend move to Barton-on-Sea. The two live very peacefully and frugally as old maids, with Agnes clearly being the gray mouse. When her former boss, Dorothy, falls in love with Teddy, she worries seriously, which in the end are unfounded.