UNITED KINGDOM AUTHOR · FICTION · 1940S
Elizabeth Goudge
Also known as: Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge, Elizabeth Goudge
Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in the cathedral city of Wells, where her father, a clergyman, was vice-principal of the Theological College. When she was a child, the family moved to Ely and then to Oxford. Elizabeth attended Grassendale School and studied art at University College Reading. She went on to teach design and handicrafts in Ely and Oxford. Her first book, The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919) was considered unsuccessful, but her first novel, Island Magic (1934) was an immediate hit. She was a best-selling author in both the UK and the USA from the 1930s through the 1970s. Elizabeth Goudge won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for The Little White Horse in 1946; it inspired the British television mini-series Moonacre and the film The Secret of Moonacre. Green Dolphin Country (1944) was adapted as a film in 1948 under the title Green Dolphin Street. After her mother's death in 1951, Elizabeth Goudge moved to a cottage on Peppard Common, just outside Henley-on-Thames, where she lived for the last 30 years of her life. She became a founding member of the Romantic Novelists' Association in 1960 and later served as vice president. She died on 1 April 1984.
Once upon a time there was a railway station waiting for a train.
Most acclaimed
I Saw Three Ships
Little orphan Polly Flowerdew lives with her two elderly maiden aunts, Dorcas and Constantia. Christmas is coming and she is bursting with excitement. She is absolutely sure that something special is going to happen this year. What will she find in her stocking? Will the Three Wise Men visit as she has always hoped? Who knows what may happen at this special time of year? She leaves her bedroom window open on Christmas Eve, just in case the Wise Men decide to come visit. When she wakes up on Christmas morning, more than one miracle seems to have taken place. In the event, this Christmas isn't like any she has ever known, especially when three ships sail into the harbour.
The Child from the Sea
The Child From The Sea tells the rich, turbulent tale of Lucy Walter, secret wife of Charles II, and mistress-despite-herself to a gallant and reckless Irish nobleman in exile. It is a story filled with the passions and adventure of an age of glory and squalor, nobility and depravity, courage and betrayal. It is a drama that ranges from an isolated castle in Wales, to the pomp and ceremony of London, to the glitter, intrigue and license of Paris. Above all, it is an intensely moving, unforgettable portrayal of a woman as proud as she was beautiful, whose untamed heart was torn between two men and whose lovely body and shining spirit tipped the scales of history.
Pilgrim's Inn; or, The Herb of Grace
After WW II, Lucilla Eliot's soldier son George and his beautiful wife Nadine lived with their five children. They acquired an ancient pilgrim's inn on the river, that touches not only its new owners but also those strangers who stop there for a rest on their pilgrimages. Sally Adair had never seen this face before, but as she studied the unfinished portrait of David Eliot, her untried heart knew the meaning of love. She would always know this face... the finely shaped head, the obstinate jaw, the hint of bitterness about the mouth. But David was tied, tied to a married woman who could not let him go. This is an unforgettable story, one that will hold you spellbound as you enter the portals of Pilgrim's Inn...