This week we watch Mary’s welcome into her new home at The Laurels and we see how she engages with the newness of the life she has chosen. Two things seem to welcome here with open arms—the wisteria and the Rayburn. There are also two poems that seem to beckon us, the readers, further into the story.

Join me today for a look at wisteria, rayburns, and two poems from The Scent of Water…

Wistaria or Wisteria?

So which is it? And why does Goudge spell it “Wistaria”?

Etymology of the name Wisteria from the wonderful botanical history, A Short History of Flowers:

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Welcome to our Goudge Readalong: Towers in the Mist!

Welcome to Elizabethan Oxford for our Goudge Theme read for the month. All you need to join in is a copy of the book! If you still need a copy, grab a paperback or Kindle here: Towers in the Mist.

Goudge’s fourth novel

Towers in the Mist was Goudge’s fourth novel: Island Magic was published in 1934, The Middle Window in 1935, A City of Bells in 1936 and Towers in the Mist was published in 1938.

When it was reviewed by the New York Times, the critic said:

(Towers in the Mist) “breathes the same spirit of joyousness that distinguished A City of Bells… It was be well-nigh impossible to read this book without being caught in the web of enchantment which the writer has woven about the city.”

Set in Elizabethan Oxford

Goudge had moved to Oxford with her father and mother in 1923, in to the house at the corner of Tom Quad, which she used for the home of the Gervas Leigh family in Towers. But all was not easy writing this novel. Here is what Goudge herself had to say about it to the Romantic Novelists' Association:

“I remember many years ago, when I was a young and struggling writer; that I made up my mind to try and write a story about sixteenth-century Oxford. I thought it would be easy for I was living in twentieth-century Oxford, history was all about me and my home was actually in the Tom Quad that Wolsey built. I tramped about Oxford, I read all the books I could lay hands on, I wrote a few lifeless chapters and they stuck as hopelessly as a fly in treacle. It was no good. I was still in the twentieth century.

Then in despair I started going to all the quiet places I knew of and being in them as though I had nothing else in the world to do. I went to Magdalen cloisters and sat there alone. I went to a particular spot by the Cherwell where the kingfishers nested and listened to the sound of the water and watched for the flash of blue. I went to St. Michael's at the North Gate and settled down in one of the pews with only the shadows for company, and the heavy door so firmly shut that the sound of distant traffic faded to a drone of bees. And then at last my mind moved from the living present to the living past as easily as a body walks from one room to another. All writers know the experience well. It makes such words as death, time, past and present, oddly unreal.”1

Thomas Nashe

Goudge begins Towers in the Mist with a poem by Thomas Nashe:

Spring, the sweet spring

BY THOMAS NASHE

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,

And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,

In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to witta-woo!

            Spring, the sweet spring!

We will be reading roughly the first eight chapters of Goudge’s Elizabethan novel by mid-February, and finishing the rest of the book for a discussion at the end of the month. There will be information about many a poet and many historic Oxfordian places this month - including a look into Goudge’s Oxford garden at Rose Cottage! Looking forward to digging in with you all!

Love to hear if you are joining us!

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Kicking off The Scent of Water

I’m excited for us this month of May - month of new beginnings - as we journey through this beautiful story of redemption.

Elizabeth wrote this novel after she wrote The Dean’s Watch. While the setting is a more modern post-war era, you will still find deep peace and comfort for the most broken of characters.

Find a copy

For those still thinking about it, there is still time to grab a copy of The Scent of Water! You can get it on Amazon in paperback or Kindle, Christian Book, Blackwells, or look for a vintage copy on Ebay or Abebooks.

And do yourself a favor and grab some book darts while you are at it. 🎯

Themes

Redemption is always a strong theme in Elizabeth’s books, and we see that here in some beautiful ways. 🌱📖🌷

Also, look for these themes this week in your reading:

• Memory

• Community

• Place

Real-life Setting: The Chiltern Hills

“The Chiltern Hills are a chalk escarpment in southern England, northwest of London, covering 660 square miles across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire, stretching 45 miles from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast. The hills are 12 miles at their widest.”1

Fictional Setting: Appleshaw

Mary sets off for Appleshaw, a little country village between London and Oxford.

Here are some photos from villages in the Chiltern Hills to help you picture her fictional location…

Hope for Sycamore Gap

I think of the Sycamore Gap tree when reading the above quote at the beginning of the novel.

“It was almost 200 years old when it was illegally cut down. In August, rangers spotted a few sprouts near its base, an unexpected sign of new life, and seeds and genetic material that scientists gathered from it last year have also started to grow. The National Trust intends to give out 49 saplings next year to spread the tree’s legacy...”2

Reading Schedule:

Week 1: chapters 1-4

Week 2: chapters 5-8

Week 3: chapters 9-12

Week 4: chapters 13-15

Thanks for joining us this month!

I am so happy to be re-reading The Scent of Water again this spring. Looking forward to all of the rich discussion we will share together here this month.

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A Diary of Prayer: A Treasury of the World’s Most Inspiring Prayers

Compiled by Elizabeth Goudge

During 2026 we are spending year contemplation Goudge’s book of prayer: A Diary of Prayer: A Treasury of the World’s Most Inspiring Prayers.

“Arranged in diary form, this book of prayers - both prose and poetry - has at least one prayer for each day of the year, and special prayers for particular feasts in the church calendar. Elizabeth Goudge collected the prayers over a period of time from many Christian traditions down the ages.”

I am happy to share this free post with you today to give you an idea of what we have been sharing together at EGBC since the beginning of the year.

If you enjoy making connections between prayers, poetry, historical personalities, and Goudge’s works, then this is the place for you!

How do I join?

1. Become a paid subscriber at Elizabeth Goudge Bookclub

2. Turn on notifications in your settings for ‘Daily Goudge’. This makes sure that you receive the updates five days per week, Monday through Friday, either as an email or a notification in your Substack App.

→ You can find all the past posts by going here

May

Poem for the Month

Listen friends.

With drowsy eyes

I have seen

Something I want to tell you.

It is daybreak.

Opposite me a prisoner wakes up.

He raises himself on one elbow.

Takes out a cigarette. Sits up.

His gaze as he smokes is lost,

and his forehead is untroubled.

(The wind is dreaming in the window.)

He draws at the cigarette. Bends forward.

Takes a piece of bread, eats it slowly

and then begins to cry.

(This does not matter perhaps.

I am just telling you.)

As for me, you know that the flagstones

have worn down the core of my heart,

but to see a man crying is always a terrible thing.

And this prisoner is not a broken tree. He is still unscarred.

But all at once everything he possesses has stood

before him during this quiet night...

With his pain in my breast

I look at him. He cannot see me.

His gaze is very distant.

He shields his eyes, crying so softly, so deep down

that the air and the silence hardly stir.

A sudden watchword makes him start.

(In the yard you can hear the guard changing over.)

MARCOS ANA

Did you know?

Fernando Macarro Castillo (1920-2016), better known by his pseudonym Marcos Ana, was a Spanish poet and is considered by numerous sources Spain's longest serving political prisoner.1

MAY 1

For Political Prisoners

Be merciful, O Father of all mercies, to such as are under persecution for the testimony of their conscience.

ANON. (PRAYER OF 1585)

O Lord Jesus Christ, unjustly taken prisoner and unjustly tried and condemned, we pray to you to-day for all those men and women, all over the world, who are in prison for their faith. From one country to another their beliefs may differ and be at variance, but it is the integrity of their souls that is precious in your sight, their courage and loyalty, and these we beg you to preserve for them in strength and purity. Comfort them, O Lord of Compassion, in loneliness and despair, and comfort and succour those who love them and must fend without them. To those who have the care of them, O Lord, grant wisdom and kindness, and that respect for a differing faith that you asked of us with your command that we should love our enemies. And to all of us, O Lord, the prisoners and those who look after them, and we who pray for them, grant the light of the Holy Spirit that shall lead us into all truth.

Likely author: Elizabeth Goudge

Elizabeth Goudge does not include credit for herself on any prayers that she wrote. There are several in her book which her biographer, Christine Rawlins, says were very likely written by Goudge herself. We will read many more this year!

Other unmarked prayers by Elizabeth Goudge in her anthology:

MAY 2

The Prayer of a Prisoner

O Thou, who hast all power in Heaven and earth; Come and let the light of thy divine Presence illuminate the shadows of the prison-house, and fill the hearts of our brothers in bonds with hope and courage to endure patiently each his peculiar burdens and trials. Support and comfort any who are cast down, or forsaken by earthly friends, or who suffer physical or mental pain or sickness. And if any are appointed to go hence, be thou their rod and staff through the dark valley, and at the last receive them unto thyself in Paradise.

O. G., A LIFE PRISONER

MAY 3

We most earnestly beseech thee, O thou Lover of man-kind, to look in thy mercy upon all prisoners. Send down into their hearts the peace of heaven. Give life to their souls and let no deadly sin prevail against them, or any of thy people. Deliver all who are in trouble, for thou art our God, who settest the captives free; who givest hope to the hopeless, and help to the helpless; and who art the Haven of the shipwrecked. Give thy pity, pardon and refreshment to them, and to us who pray for them. Preserve us, in our pilgrimage through this life, from hurt and danger, and grant that we may end our lives well-pleasing to thee and free from sin.

LITURGY OF ST. MARK (ADAPTED)

Since 2018, Julie Witmer has been sharing the riches that she finds every time she opens a book by Elizabeth Goudge.

Julie has taught and facilitated hundreds of guided Goudge readings over several years, including for all fifteen of Goudge’s adult novels, her children’s books, short stories, and two narrative biographies. Hope you can join us!

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Lots to chat about today as we work on wrapping up The Rosemary Tree for April. Be sure to check our week 2 & 3 posts for literary references and character arcs if you haven’t read those yet.

Today: Leading ladies, gardening, Devon and comparisons with the Eliot series…

Leading ladies

In 1917, as a young lady of 17 years, Elizabeth Goudge wrote in a letter that she had come to understand “the way in which the spirit of the one man or woman at the helm can subtly alter the whole atmosphere of some institutions.”1

The Rosemary Tree is a novels that vividly shows a contrast between the females leaders in a community, and the fruit of their different types of leadership. There are surprisingly few male characters in the story, and the two who are in the story (John and Michael) are greatly affected by the spiritual leadership and wisdom of the women around them.

Within a few minutes spent with Harriet, it’s easy to feel that despite her doubts and weakness, she has a tremendously nurturing affect on the main family.

“There was nothing so swift and free as a bird. Yet crippled though she was she felt nothing but joy in watching them. She had always known how to wait.”

Mrs. Belling, however, is Harriet’s opposite.

It was reported that when Goudge’s editor read the novel, he said, “I didn’t know you had it in you to write about such a horrible character!”2

Healing in the garden

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Join us for Goudge’s Oxford novel

As a part of our new Goudge Themes for 2026, Goudge readers here have the option of reading Towers in the Mist in May instead of (or in addition to) The Scent of Water.

If you have been reading along with us, we have already completed two themes for the year (the Eliots and Lenten Devotional) and we are already started on a third theme of Modern novels. This book gives readers a chance to get started on checking off the Cathedral Books theme for the year! There will not be live discussions for the theme-only books, but there will be plenty of time to discuss in the posts throughout this month.

Plot Synopsis by Henrickson:

“It is late 16th-century London and awkward teenager Faithful travels to Oxford to study in England's great university. When Canon Leigh takes him in, Faithful enters into a family as exciting and educational as the university itself. Woven into the narratives of Faithful and the canon's daughter Joyeuce is a coming-of-age tale of young love and hope!”

Get a copy

To join us, all you need to join in is a copy of the book! If you need a copy, grab a paperback or Kindle here Towers in the Mist, or look for a used copy on Ebay or Abebooks.

Here is the regular list which do include live discussions for 2026:

If you are joining us this month for Towers in the Mist: are you reading for the first time? or as a reread?

Love to hear!

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*Amazon Affiliate links are included in this newsletter. I make a few cents per recommendation, each of which I hope will be helpful to you!

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The Rosemary Tree Discussion

We had a wonderful turn out today and a wonderful book chat! Thanks to all who came. I have recorded a video summary for everyone who was unable to make it today, and included much of what we talked about. There is also an outline below if you prefer to read.

Live Book Chat for The Rosemary Tree:

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Join us for a Goudge celebration today, including a few new photos from my travels…

Wells, England in 1900

An excerpt from Beyond the Snow by Goudge’s biographer, Christine Rawlins:

“Despite the peaceful security of her ecclesiastical childhood, this little girl would have inner battles of her own to fight too: battles which seemed at times as if they might destroy her. Her work as a writer was never unaffected by her battles - and yet it has always been described, entirely accurately, as enchanting, happy and delightful. They were labels she acquired early on in her career, with novels which largely looked back to childhood - her own and her mother's - or beyond, into history. Much of her autobiographical writing too focuses on the early years and the picture she paints is idyllic - whether writing for her adult readers or, as here in her preface to A Child's Garden of Verses, for children. She uses the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson to enlarge on her own recollections - what The Joy of the Snow acknowledges as her gratitude that she was born when she was…”

In the intro to the omnibus editions, Three Cities of Bells, Rawlins points out that Goudge recalls:

“leaning against the wall of the cathedral. I must have been very young at the time for it is one of my earliest memories. The cathedral grew up out of our garden like a stone mountain out of a meadow, a vast benign presence brooding over us by night and day, talking to us in bell-music and concerned for our safety.

But I was not in a benign mood as I leaned against its great stone flank, for the devil was in me. It was a warm sunny Good Friday and my request to accompany the adults to the Ihree Hours' service had been categorically refused; which was not surprising as I was not able at this date to compose myself to orderly behaviour even through the short span of going-out-before-the-sermon matins. But I was furious. I had been denied access to my own cathedral, which grew out of my own garden, and I raged against the wall. And then to my graceless condition grace was mercifully given. Over my head was a stained glass window and it mediated to me the sound of distant music. They were singing far away inside the cathedral. A small thing, perhaps, to leave behind such an indelible impression but the experience was indescribably lovely. To me this was not earthly music. It melted the rage out of me and filled me up instead with awe and longing. It was then, I think, that cathedrals became to me the symbolic presences that they have been ever since...

Beside the Cathedral, under an archway, a gate opened into a small graveyard and from there another archway led into the cloisters... Whenever I liked I could run through the green garth to the cloisters, and I often did. I liked being there alone and gazing out through the arches at the central square of green grass that seemed to breathe out cool quietness as a well does. Years later, when I lived at Oxford, I would escape in the same way to the small cloister at Magdalen College. It had the same sort of stillness.

From the Wells cloisters steps led down to a place of grass and tall trees, and beyond was the outer wall of the Bishop's Palace, and the drawbridge over the moat...”1

Bells & Tulips in the Bishop’s Palace Garden from my visit this April:

Happy birthday to our favorite lady, Elizabeth Goudge!

How will you celebrate Elizabeth Goudge’s birthday today? Love to hear!

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Also this month, the 42nd Anniversary of Goudge’s death:

Read more about Elizabeth Goudge in this photo biography post:

Goudge’s garden at Rose Cottage:

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Elizabeth Goudge wrote The Rosemary Tree to include a full library of literary references. There are so many, it is leading me to wonder whether this is the book with the most references of all that she wrote. Whether it is or no, it was Goudge reaching back in the literature of her own childhood that makes for such a rich characterization in her own story.

The Rosemary Tree was published in 1956, at a moment when literary fashion was moving on quickly from the things of the past. The “old classics” were looked down on by the modern literary movement.

Bloomsbury Academic reports:

“There was a problem with the new type of fiction that emerged in the 1950s by writers such as Kingsley Amis and John Wain, which ‘angrily’ expressed dissatisfaction with the residual literary elites and cultural hierarchies while employing a style of plain-talking realism. According to Angus Wilson, for all the effort to move beyond the influence of modernism, the ironic thing about such post-war social novels was that their depictions of characters remained inferior…”1

Yet Goudge knew that if she packed her books with references to an older style of literature, she could ground them in her readers’ imaginations using these older characters and stories from her English-speaking culture. She used children’s books, Medieval tales, Victorian novels, and modern poetry. She referenced hymns, a Spanish novel and the greatest Regency-era author. All these and more she packed in to The Rosemary Tree, and we will look at them today.

Here are eleven separate literary works Goudge references in chapters 1-8, and a bit of discussion about them and their authors:

Don Quixote by Cervantes

Though many of her references are of the British greats, the most consistent reference in this novel is of a Spanish tale. John Wentworth is patterned on Don Quixote in many ways which are mentioned throughout the book. And the author’s circumstances are also relevant to Michael’s character. Goudge has used this one to the full!

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. Considered a founding work of Western literature, it is often labelled as the first modern novel and the greatest work ever written.2

Also, here is an article which has an interesting look at many different depictions of the famous Don Quixote.

Mrs Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter

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Join us!

I hope you are planning on joining us for a perfect Goudge novel for springtime—The Scent of Water. Goudge wrote this novel as inspired by the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire near the location of her Rose Cottage. It is a beautiful story of spiritual renewal, dealing with grief, childhood and redemption. Hope you can join us!

Synopsis from Henrickson:

“Mary Lindsay is a born and bred Londoner who has enjoyed her city life-a prestigious job, and friends with whom she takes in the city pleasures of theatre, art and music. But fleeting memories of a childhood visit to her father's elderly cousin out in the country are revived with the news that the woman has willed her home, the Laurels, to Mary. She makes an uncharacteristically sudden and life-changing decision to leave London for the country. The gradual unfolding of her understanding of herself, of the now-deceased woman who has bequeathed her home to Mary, and of the people of Appleshaw, all weave together in a most memorable story of love's redemptive power.”

Get your copy

You can get it on Amazon in paperback or Kindle, Christian Book, Blackwells, or look for a vintage copy on Ebay or Abebooks. Here are a couple of graphics you may share with your reading friends:

Hope you can join us for all the Goudge novels and children’s books still coming up in 2026:

Note: Our live book discussion for The Scent of Water will be on Wednesday May 27th at 3PM EST this month.

Love to hear if you will be reading with us in May, and if you will be reading for the first time, or rereading!

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*Amazon Affiliate links are included in this newsletter. I make a few cents per recommendation, each of which I hope will be helpful to you!

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