At Home in Mitford

I had one of those nights last night where you wake up at 3am and no matter what you do, you can’t get back to sleep. As I was lying there in bed thinking about what might help, I remembered that I told you I was going to start rereading the Mitford series by Jan Karon. I padded downstairs to the big bookcase in the living room and found the first book in the series, At Home in Mitford. Looking inside the front cover I discovered that it was written way back in 1994. In a letter to the reader written in 2014, Jan Karon wrote that in the early days booksellers could sell it with a money- back guarantee, so universal was its appeal.

I settled in to begin to read and again, 27 years after reading the book the first time, I was completely disarmed and charmed by the first chapter. In that chapter, Jan Karon writes about how Father Tim, the protagonist, is adopted by a dog who he names Barnabus. I love the quote from E. B. White that the town vet shares with Father Tim : “A really companionable and indispensable dog is an accident of nature. You can’t get it by breeding for it and you can’t buy it with money. It just happens along.”

Although I am a ‘cat person’, I have seen how important and indispensable dogs are to their owners. One thing I love about At Home in Mitford is that scattered throughout the book are many such wise and informative quotations.

I thought I would write to you again this morning about Mitford, just in case you haven’t read it in the past. From my experience 25 years ago of sharing about the book with many of the people I knew, there was no-one that I recommended it to who didn’t truly enjoy it.

Also, at times such as these, I think we could all use a charming, disarming, peace producing read! I am so hopeful that if you do choose to read the Mitford series that you too will be blessed by it in these ways!

Enjoy!