Getting ready for July!
Linnets & Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge
{The rest of that day passed like a happy dream. Tea came up to their fullest expectations, with no scrimping of butter on the muffins and the strawberries in the jam large and juicy. It was great fun unpacking their belongings and putting them away in their rooms…
"Since you've come to stay," said Ezra when they had finished, "we must tell the bees."
"Tell the bees?" ejaculated Robert. "But bees don't understand when you talk to them."
"Never let me hear you say that again," said Ezra sternly. "Bees understand every word you say. They be the most wonderful creatures God ever made. If men were to have one-quarter of the wisdom of the bees this wicked world would be a better place, and so I be telling you."}
🌿 Elizabeth Goudge, Linnets & Valerians
Join us!
I hope you are planning on joining us this summer for another of Goudge’s children’s books—Linnets & Valerians. Goudge wrote this novel as inspired by Dartmoor near the location of her cottage in Marldon, Devon, UK. It is a rollicking story of fun and adventure, with a bit of redemption thrown in. Hope you can join us!
Here is a bit of jacket copy from my first US edition from Coward & McCann:
“There was only one thing to do- escape.
At least that's what the four Linnet children thought when they found themselves in the care of a grandmother who on the one hand despised dogs and on the other hand believed in boarding schools and instant obedience.
And escape they did-into a beautiful world knee deep in bluebells, presided over by an admirable uncle, peopled by such romantic characters as Ezra, a one-legged gardener who talked to bees, Lady Alicia who refused to go outdoors except in the moonlight, and Emma Cobley, a witch who was at the heart of whatever unhappiness there was in the village of High Barton. Allied with Emma Cobley, there were giants and magic cats but in the end, although they created some hair-raising episodes, they were no match for the Linnets.
This is Elizabeth Goudge at her magical best, creating a story that is bound to live happily ever after in the hearts of its readers.”
Get your copy
You can get it in paperback, Kindle or even a vintage copy.
This book was also published under the title, The Runaways. So you might encounter some paperbacks with this name!
Hope you can join us for all the Goudge novels and children’s books still coming up in 2024:
Love to hear if you will be reading with us in July, and if you will be reading for the first time, or rereading!
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My favorite of her books. My daughter's first tattoo was of the animals in this book.
Reading Linnets and Valerians for first time.