Our hearts are irresistibly drawn to Dooley, the lovable, yet unloved young boy who comes to Father Tim’s back door looking for a place to “take a dump”. Another good interview on Jan Karon’s life and faith journey can be found here: įather Tim is joined by a cast of endearing characters that populate Mitford and its surroundings. driven to the wall by the circumstances and tragedy of life” which led her to embrace Christianity ( Christianity Today’s website). Karon describes herself as having been “. Karon married young and was divorced soon after, raising her daughter for many years as a single parent. And it can be a way of healing.” ( Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St. “Writing is a way of processing our lives. The personal hardship experienced by author Jan Karon creates a depth to the stories: “There was a lot of brokenness in my family,” she observes. Because he loves us, God works things together for our good. Difficulties afflict Father Tim: loneliness, physical disease, doubt, and clinical depression yet a message of hope is woven throughout each novel which reflects the author’s worldview. The world of Mitford may be charming, but it is not idyllic. Delightfully, Father Tim is also intelligent and well-read his speech flows with literary quotations and references.

His heart reaches out to anyone he encounters, proven by his daily waking prayer: “Lord, make me a blessing to someone today. I waited impatiently for each new novel’s publication and was always rewarded with another charming, humorous installment.įather Timothy Kavanagh, the central character in the beloved Mitford series, epitomizes the Mitford town motto – “We take care of our own.” His parish is wider than the Lord’s Chapel where he is the Episcopalian rector. The first in the series, At Home in Mitford, became a new York Times bestseller the same year my first child was born. The Mitford Series is made up of ten novels written in a vignette format that intertwine the stories of finely-drawn characters who inhabit the fictional mountainous town of Mitford, North Carolina.

What she created is a contemporary classic. Almost twenty years ago, successful advertising executive, Jan Karon left behind her fast-paced life in the city and moved to Blowing Rock, North Carolina to pursue her childhood passion of writing.

At home in mitford book series