I love these stories. Lots of witchy women in this one. Besides Mrs. Pringle who is the school's resident curmudgeon, there's Mrs. Fowler, a tenant of Tyler's Row. Mr. Willet, the village handy man calls her a Besom, which I am assuming means a Bitch. She is that and then some. The Hales, who are new characters, buy the row houses, with hopes of combining all four to make one house. They start renovating the middle two vacant houses which are in very poor shape. When they finally move in, they find themselves in the midst of battle between an elderly man on one side, and Mrs. Fowler on the other. Makes for great drama. There is another witchy woman, Mrs Johnson, who is extremely snooty and pushy. She forces Miss Read to have a PTA at the school. Miss Read is less than thrilled but goes along with the plan. Mrs. Johnson joins forces with another pushy woman, Mrs Mawne to get the teachers and parents to organize the PTA. Miss Read does such a wonderful job creating these characters. They really spice up the stories.
