Getting ready for February!
Henrietta's House by Elizabeth Goudge
“The Cathedral clock chimed half-past three as they left the city and made their way through the lanes that wound between flower-decked hedges up and up towards the blue hills that shut in the Valley of Torminster. The white dust that one does not see nowadays rose about their wheels and added to the dignity of this stately yet comic birthday celebration. Such picnic parties are not seen today. Its progress was slow, placid, peaceful.
How could any of them have guessed to what an adventure it was leading them?”
🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, Henrietta’s House
Finishing Goudge’s Coziest Series
In February we will be reading Henrietta’s House, the last book of Elizabeth Goudge‘s three-book Torminster series. This series is set in Wells, the cathedral city where Goudge was born in the West Country of England.
Join us in February!
I hope you are planning on joining us for Goudge’s sweet and magical fairytale—Henrietta’s House. Goudge wrote this novel as inspired by the scenery surrounding a cathedral city that to this day contains a street built in the 14th century, a Bishop’s Palace surrounded by a moat, and swans that ring a bell for their food. Inside the city is a safe haven of an old and venerable faith community, but in this story the whole Fordyce family will be off on an adventure getting lost in the blue hills and dales around Torminster.
We read A City of Bells in November, Sister of the Angels in December, and are finishing with Henrietta’s House in February!
If you missed A City of Bells and Sister of the Angels, you can still jump in with Henrietta’s House! In this fairytale story, she gets the thing she wishes for more than anything in the world—a safe place to keep all of the people she loves.
I will be sharing setting photos, book quotes, characters and scenes all month here in posts, and we will enjoy discussing it together live on Zoom on Wednesday, February 26th at 3PM EST. Hope you can join us!
Get your copy
Find the two Henrietta books, Sister of the Angels and Henrietta’s House, for the best price from their small publisher, Girls Gone By Publishers. They have very reasonable shipping prices. It would be a good idea to order soon, and throw in the Goudge books Smoky House, The Joy of the Snow, and The Valley of Song as well so that you can join us in April, June & July!
Goudge Readalong list for 2025
“With the motor car left behind the cavalcade started, and the carriages rolled along one behind the other through the beautiful narrow streets of the old city, and all the people they passed stopped and smiled and lifted their hats when they saw the Close go by...”
🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, Henrietta’s House
I just joined. I have read an excerpt of Henrietta's House in an anthology. It was all I could find, so your preparatory emailing are very helpful.
I have read two other books on your list for this year. I am looking forward very much to the discussion on 2/26!
Linda Lindley
I'll be joining! I have an old paperback copy of The Blue Hills that I'll be reading from. It's a reread for me!