Still glides the stream

In 'Still Glides the Stream,' Flora Thompson returns to the English countryside of her childhood. Published posthumously in 1948, it paints an unforgettable picture of the people and way of life of almost a century ago. Unlike her best-selling trilogy, the book is entirely fictional, centered on the imaginary Oxfordshire village of Restharrow around the time of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. The village and its inhabitants are seen through the eyes of Miss Charity Finch, a retired school mistress, who returns to Restharrow to relive the memories of her early years. Her memories capture a world where life was hard but values were solid and enduring, but it is also a world that was vanishing...even as Charity Finch remembers her childhood. In 'Still Glides the Stream,' Flora Thompson employs her imagination and artistic skills to wholly new effect. With an unforgettable gallery of characters, Uncle Reuben, Bess, Mercy, Luke, Stella Pocock, and the rest, she creates a vivid and affectionate portrait of life in the English countryside as it was a century ago.