Country life book series in reading order

by Miss Read

by Lilian Jackson Braun

by Wendell Berry

Miss Read is the pen name of Dora Jessie Saint (1913-2012), an English novelist who worked as a schoolmistress and took the name from her mother's maiden name. Two series set in the English countryside carry the reputation: the Fairacre novels, opening with Village School (1955), and the Thrush Green novels, opening with Thrush Green (1959). Village life, country schools and English Christmas stories run through the subjects. The listing holds 53 titles dated 1955 to 2013, at a median of 231 pages.

English village life is Rebecca Shaw's subject: clergy, the parish church, veterinary practice and the people of two invented places, Turnham Malpas and Barleybridge. Shaw wrote 28 novels for Orion Publishing Group and sold more than a million copies, plus three standalone ebooks. The New Rector (1994) opens Tales from Turnham Malpas, and Talk of the Village (1996), Village Secrets (1998), Scandal In The Village (1999) and Village Gossip (2000) follow. The catalogue holds 29 titles at a median of 280 pages.

Patrick Taylor's Irish Country novels follow two doctors, Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly and Barry Laverty, in rural Northern Ireland. A second line, the Irish Troubles books, turns to political violence. Taylor's catalogue holds 23 titles, from The West Clare Railway (1994) to An Irish Country Yuletide (2021), with short stories and non-fiction alongside. No new Taylor title has appeared since 2021.

Martin Walker

51 books• 3 series

Martin Walker, born 1947, is a Scottish former journalist and historian who writes the Bruno detective novels, featuring Bruno Courrèges, a police chief in rural France. Walker worked at The Guardian from 1971 to 1999, joined United Press International in 2000 as a Washington correspondent, and is now UPI's editor-in-chief emeritus. The 51 catalogued titles run from The National Front (1977) to A Murder in Springtime (2026). Non-fiction in the list includes The Waking Giant: Soviet Union Under Gorbachev (1986) and The Cold War and the Making of the Modern World (1993).

Ann Purser writes English village mysteries. Lois Meade, a cleaner who investigates, heads the largest series, which begins with Murder on Monday (2002) and names its titles for days of the week. The Ivy Beasley mysteries, set around a retirement community, and the Round Ringford novels fill out the fiction. The catalogue holds 27 books running from 1978 to 2014, the earliest being Looking back at popular entertainment (1978) and You and Your Handicapped Child (1981).

Michael Morpurgo

171 books• 5 series

Sir Michael Morpurgo, born 5 October 1943, is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist best known for children's novels such as War Horse (1982). Morpurgo served as the third Children's Laureate from 2003 to 2005 and is President of BookTrust, a children's reading charity. Recurring themes include outsiders who triumph, survival and bonds with nature, set in places such as the Cornish coast and the First World War trenches. The catalogue holds 171 books from It Never Rained (1974) to Down Burrow Lane (2026), including the Mudpuddle Farm series.

Constable on the Hill (1979) opens the Nicholas Rhea catalogue, which holds 70 books through 2020. Subjects recorded for the catalogue include police, country life, England, the fictitious character Nick Parish and the imaginary place Aidensfield. Series by Nicholas Rhea include Constable Nick Mystery, Detective Superintendent Mark Pemberton, Montague Pluke and Maddleskirk Abbey, and Portrait Of The North York Moors (1985) also appears. The latest title is Heartbeat: The Story Behind the Series (2020).

L.M. Montgomery

57 books• 9 series

Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 to April 24, 1942) was a Canadian author who published as L. M. Montgomery. Anne of Green Gables (1908) began the body of work Montgomery is known for, and the orphan Anne Shirley brought Montgomery fame and an international readership. The career produced 20 novels plus more than a thousand short stories and poems, alongside essays. The catalogue lists 57 books, from Anne of Green Gables to editions dated 2025, and holds the Anne Shirley, Emily and Silver Bush series and the published journals.

Gladys Taber wrote about country life, cooking and cats. Stillmeadow is the series Taber is catalogued for, and Harvest at Stillmeadow (1940) is its earliest entry. 48 titles run from Lady of the Moon (1928) to The First Book of Cats (2020), with the 1940s the densest decade. American authors, autobiography, biography, cookery, flower arrangement and homes and haunts carry the subject tags.

Cynthia Rylant, born Cynthia Smith on June 6, 1954, is an American author and librarian who has written more than 100 children's books across picture books, short stories, novels, nonfiction and poetry. Missing May took the 1993 Newbery Medal, A Fine White Dust was a 1987 Newbery Honor book, and two further titles are Caldecott Honor Books. The catalogue records 229 books from When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982) onward, with series including Henry and Mudge, Mr. Putter & Tabby, Poppleton and the Lighthouse Family.

Maeve Binchy

47 books• 6 series

Irish writer Maeve Binchy was born on 28 May 1939 and died on 30 July 2012. Binchy worked as a novelist, playwright, columnist and speaker, and wrote short stories. Binchy's novels portray small-town Irish life with sympathy and humour, often closing on a surprise ending. Translations reached 37 languages and sales passed 40 million copies. In the US, Binchy's work was selected for Oprah's Book Club and reached The New York Times Best Seller list. The catalogue lists 47 titles from Central Line (1978) to Maeve Binchy's Treasury (2021), including Light a Penny Candle (1982) and Circle of Friends (1990).

Wendell Berry (August 5, 1934 - August 31, 2026) was an American novelist, poet, essayist, farmer, environmental activist and cultural critic closely tied to rural Kentucky. Berry set out agrarian themes in The Unsettling of America (1977) and The Gift of Good Land (1981). The Port William novels and stories, including A Place on Earth, Jayber Crow and That Distant Land, examine rural community life. Berry received the National Humanities Medal, delivered the 2012 Jefferson Lecture and belonged to the Fellowship of Southern Writers. The catalogue lists 104 books from Nathan Coulter (1960) to Marce Catlett (2025).

Robyn Carr is the American author of the Virgin River books, and an executive producer on the television versions of Virgin River and Sullivan's Crossing. The catalogue records 70 Carr books, from Chelynne (1980) to The Friendship Club (2024). Thunder Point, Sullivan's Crossing and the Grace Valley Trilogy are Carr's other series. Several novels, The Hero among them, reached The New York Times Best Seller list. Subject tags on the books include contemporary romance, California, single mothers, veterans and city and town life.

Lilian Jackson Braun wrote the Cat Who mysteries, in which the journalist Jim Qwilleran solves crimes alongside his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. 32 catalogued books span 1966 to 2007, among them The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern (1967), The Cat Who Turned On And Off (1968), The Cat Who Saw Red (1986), The Cat Who Played Brahms (1987) and The Cat Who Played Post Office (1987). The last catalogued title is The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers, and short stories sit alongside the novels.

Susan Wittig Albert

67 books• 7 series

Susan Wittig Albert is an American mystery writer from Vermilion County, Illinois, who has also published as Robin Paige and Carolyn Keene. Before writing full time, Albert worked in academia and became the first female vice president of Southwest Texas State University. The catalogue lists 67 titles from 1992 to 2024. Thyme of Death (1992) comes first, then Witches' Bane (1993), Hangman's Root (1994) and Rosemary Remembered (1995), and Forget Me Never (2024) is the newest. Series include China Bayles, Darling Dahlias, Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, Crystal Cave and the Pecan Springs Enterprise Trilogy. Herbalists, Texas and the 1930s feature in the subject tags.

Bodie & Brock Thoene write Christian historical fiction, with catalogue subjects covering the Bible, Jesus Christ, Jewish history, the Holocaust, the Second World War and the Israel-Arab War of 1948-1949. The joint catalogue holds 80 books listed between 1979 and 2026, and includes the Zion Chronicles, Zion Covenant, Zion Legacy, A.D. Chronicles, Elijah Chronicles, Galway Chronicles, Shiloh Legacy and Legends of the West sequences, plus non-fiction. Chuck Roberson shares the credit on the 1979 title The Fall Guy: 30 Years as the Duke's Double.

Patricia MacLachlan (March 3, 1938 to March 31, 2022), born Patricia Marie Pritzkau, was an American children's writer. MacLachlan's novel Sarah, Plain and Tall won the Newbery Medal in 1986 and gave its name to a series. The catalogue holds 63 books for young readers, including the Barkus series, Arthur, for the Very First Time and My Poet (2022). Family life, dogs, grandparents, friendship and frontier life are frequent subjects.

Heather Graham is the name under which Heather Graham Pozzessere, an American writer born on 15 March 1953, publishes mainly romance fiction; Shannon Drake is a further pen name. Graham's work has been published in about 25 languages, with more than 75 million copies printed. The catalogue records 311 books from Tender Taming (1983) to Destiny Rising (2026). Krewe of Hunters, Harrison Investigation, Cafferty & Quinn, Alliance Vampires, Keepers: L.A., New York Confidential and Finnegan Connection are among the Graham series. Subjects span historical, paranormal, contemporary and suspense romance.

Provence made Peter Mayle's name, in travel writing about French village life, food and neighbours. The earlier work is very different: illustrated guides for children and parents, starting with 'What's Happening to Me?' (1975) and 'Where Did I Come From?' (1977), plus the Wicked Willie cartoons. Sam Levitt heads a later crime series. Fifty-four titles make up the catalogue, which closes with My Twenty-Five Years in Provence in 2018.

Dame Susan Hill, Lady Wells, is an English writer of fiction and non-fiction born 5 February 1942. The Woman in Black has been adapted for stage and screen. I'm the King of the Castle (1970) won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971, and The Bird of Night took the Whitbread Novel Award in 1972 and reached the Booker Prize shortlist. The catalogue counts 78 books from The Enclosure (1961) to A Change of Circumstance (2021), including the Simon Serrailler police procedurals, children's books and picture books. Hill became a CBE in 2012 and a DBE in 2020, both for services to literature.

Marcia Willett (1945-2022) was a British writer of women's fiction who also published as Willa Marsh. The catalogue holds 38 titles published between 1995 and 2022, opening with A Friend of the Family (1995) and The Courtyard (1995) and closing with Christmas at the Keep (2022). The Chadwick Family Chronicles is Willett's one continuing series; the rest are standalone novels and novellas. Family life, family secrets, brothers and sisters, widows and the county of Cornwall recur across the subjects.

Between 1950 and 1961 Barbara Pym published a run of English social comedies, of which Excellent Women (1952) and A Glass of Blessings (1958) are the best known. Publishers then rejected her for years, until in 1977 the critic David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin named her the most underrated writer of the previous 75 years. Quartet in Autumn (1977) went on to a Booker Prize nomination, and Pym was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She lived from 1913 to 1980, and her 14 catalogued titles close with Civil to Strangers and Other Writings (1988).

Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) wrote English fiction for adults and for children. The Little White Horse won the Carnegie Medal in 1946, and J.K. Rowling later named it a favourite and a direct influence on the Harry Potter books. Goudge's 41 catalogued titles run from Island Magic (1934) to A Vision of God (1990). Three family sequences organise much of the fiction: the Torminster Saga, the Eliots of Damerosehay and the Du Frocq Family. Country life, historical settings and Christmas stories fill the subject tags.

Richard Peck wrote for young adults and children across five decades. Are You in the House Alone? (1967) opens a catalogue of 48 titles closing with Master Class on Writing the Novel for Young Readers (2021). The Newbery Medal went to A Year Down Yonder in 2001, a sequel to A Long Way From Chicago, and the American Library Association gave Peck its Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1990. Blossom Culp and Lost in Cyberspace are among the series; time travel, grandmothers, schools, friendship and humour run through the books. Peck lived from 1934 to 2018.