Gentian Hill: Week 1

Goudge's Devon, St Michael's Chapel & Weekaborough Farm

“Stella had been born with the gift of wonder, and the fact that something was a part of herself did not prevent her from contemplating it with awe and delight; there were times when herself seemed to herself the most astonishing thing of all.”

🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, Gentian Hill

Elizabeth Goudge may have picked up her life abruptly and moved to Devon for her mother’s sake in 1939, but it seems that she herself also enjoyed the rolling hills, the purple moors and the turquoise sea of Torquay. Gentian Hill was the fourth of Devon books, and she would later write two more.

• The first was her children’s book, Smoky House, which we will read together in April.

• Second was our book for March, her adult novel about WWII, The Castle on the Hill.

• Third was The Little White Horse, which we read last summer.

• Later after her mother’s death just as she was picking up to move to Oxfordshire, she would finish The Rosemary Tree.

• And lastly would be another children’s book, Linnets & Valerians.

It is interesting that this area of Devon is known as the “English Riviera” and has a strong resemblance to some of the coastal areas on Guernsey. Could this be the reason why her mother Ida wished to move there after loosing her husband? Perhaps she missed her island home and this was a close as she could get.

Join us today for lots of real life Devon locations that Goudge mentions in Gentian Hill! Beacon Hill, Smoky house, St Michael’s Chapel (and its ghost story!), and Weekaborough Farm in the real Marldon countryside.

“Broadhembury is an East Devon village set within the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.” Photo and Caption from Living in Devon