Miss Read

Dora Jessie Saint MBE (17 April 1913 – 7 April 2012), née Shafe, best known by the pen name Miss Read, was an English novelist and, by profession, a schoolmistress. Her pseudonym was derived from her mother's maiden name. She is best known for two series of novels set in the English countryside, the Fairacre novels and the Thrush Green novels.

Biography

Dora Jessie Shafe was born on 17 April 1913 in London, the younger of the daughters of Arthur Shafe, an insurance agent, and his wife Grace. For the sake of her mother's health, the family moved to the country when Dora was seven, and she began school in Chelsfield, near Orpington, Kent, and later joined her older sister at Bromley county school. When her father became a schoolmaster, Dora followed his example and undertook teacher training at Homerton College, Cambridge.

From 1933 to 1940 she taught in Middlesex, first at Hayes and then at Ealing.

In 1940 she married Douglas Saint; they had one daughter, Jill. and the Times Educational Supplement. She also worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC schools service.

In 1953 a piece of her writing was spotted in the Observer and she was approached by a book publisher to create a book. 70,000 words was a challenge as she had never written more than a thousand.

Saint also wrote two volumes of autobiography, A Fortunate Grandchild (1982) and Time Remembered (1986); the two were issued together in 1995 as Early Days.

Saint wrote 28 novels, 2 autobiographies and 14 other books; her books were translated into several languages including Japanese and Russian.

Saint retired in 1996. In 1998 she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire