I was found by Elizabeth Goudge, age nine, at a friends house by accident one wet afternoon, in the form of a tatty paperback called “The Little White Horse”. My friend had been bought it by her elder sister, and didn’t care for it at all. I on the other hand couldn’t put it down. We were playing hide and seek. I hide in their sister's wardrobe where I found the discarded book. I stayed there for what seemed hours. They gave up and never found me
From the moment the carriage lurches, and Miss Heliotrope, Maria Merryweather and Wiggins fall into each others arms, I was enchanted. The spell was only deepened as Digweed swung from the bell rope, and trundled them through the tunnel.
Later to this discussion but The Little White Horse was our class story book when I was about seven or eight years old. I was so enthralled with it that it was the first hardback book that I saved up my pocket money to buy at the princely sum of 16/-. I knew that book by heart and her descriptions of places, homes and cathedrals has been a defining influence on me all my life and definitely impacted my choice of many of the places I visited on holiday, including New Zealand.
I did not remember reading her other children’s stories, or if I did they did not stick with me like LWH, but I read her adult books and for my eighteenth birthday asked my parents to buy me the single volume trilogy, The Eliots of Damerosehay, as the story of Lucilla and especially The Herb of Grace was one of my favourites. Other titles I returned to again and again were The Scent of Water and The Castle on the Hill.
I also loved the anthologies of her short stories, such as White Wings, and selections of her novels, especially The Ten Gifts and At the Sign of the Dolphin. They showcase her ability to write about a huge range of characters and give them a depth and a spiritual dimension that is matchless.
Having spent time away from regularly reading her books, getting them for my eReader has encouraged me to pick them up again. I also recently decided I wanted to replace my older Coronet paperbacks with hardback editions and to try to get copies of all her books. I have succeeded in having most of her works now, with just a few of the short story collections missing.
Wonderful to hear, Sandra! How special to find her as a child. :)
Yes, I agree, her short story collections are brilliant. I do wish they would go back into print! So glad to hear that you are finding copies of her books on eReader, as I have heard that helps many people to read them, as well as some vintage copies. They are all a treat.
Many years ago, I was a newly married and my husband and I had just moved to a new city. Several things had happened that were making my adjustment to being a wife in a strange city a difficult adjustment. I was feeling off kilter and a little unbalanced and desperate to find some solace. Of course books have always been what I turn to for all situations in life, particularly emotional upheavals. I had never heard of Elizabeth Goudge but took home her book from the library. The book was "The Scent of Water."
I had been guided to the perfect book to read at that time in my life. I immediately went on to find any of her books anywhere I could. No one else had heard of her then so I often found copies in thrift stores and library sales. Elizabeth Goudge has been my favorite author for over 40 years, and it is gratifying to see her books appreciated by so many today.
The Scent of Water has been rescuing people for many years I would bet! So beautiful that you found it at that moment. Yes, I’m so grateful more can read her stories now. <3 Thank you for sharing your story here!
It's great to read about others' first encounters with E.G. My grandmother passed along some paperbacks to my family, and that included The Dean's Watch. I think I was probably around 10 or 11, and Isaac's work as a clock maker and Polly were the characters that stayed in my mind over the years. Plus the little umbrella for Belle? Then in middle school a teacher had a little lending library, and I must confess that The Little White Horse never got returned. I simply had to be able to read it over and over. The mixture of ethereal and earthy enchanted me. But I never connected the two books by author until I found The Child from the Sea in a little thrift store in my 20s, read and loved that, and started to try to find more by the same author......and here we are some forty years on......
Yes! Bella adhered! Love The Dean's Watch. Glad we are doing it soon.
And I share with you the malefaction of a library book not being returned -I think there are two that I absconded with. Glad to share a common love of E.G.
I love this post and survey! Everyone’s origin stories are so interesting.
In my mind, the exact “moment” is a little hazy, strangely enough. I know that years ago my mother shared with me that she loved Elizabeth Goudge; however, I did not start reading her books at that point. In January of 2019 I purchased The Scent of Water. I think I was inspired by the Elizabeth Goudge Bookclub on Bookstagram that I had just discovered! I did not read it until April, around Easter, but it was transformational for me. I had never experienced such deep truths imbedded in fiction. I was determined to read everything by her. So far I’ve read fifteen books by Elizabeth Goudge, so I have a long way to go, but I own almost all of her books. Something for me to focus on during the long weeks and months of the pandemic was collecting Elizabeth Goudge books. It gave me something positive and fun to focus on during a challenging time.
So glad you are here Teresa! It’s so encouraging to hear that Goudge has meant so much to you in the last few years. Each of her books has felt transformational for me and different seasons. Sometimes I’ll even read one that didn’t strike me the first time in the second time it’s exactly the thing I need. It’s amazing how that happens. I’m really looking forward to reading the scent of water again together in 2024. <3
I think I’ve mentioned this on Instagram, but since you asked…. It was the early 80’s and I was a stay-at-home mom at the time with young children and no money for extras. As a treat I would go to a secondhand trade-in bookstore of used paperbacks. (I don’t know how they ever made enough money to pay their rent at even the sub-par mall.) Most paperbacks, especially the older ones I preferred were less than a dollar or even no cost with a trade-in. A lot of romance readers frequented the shop though that wasn’t my thing. I did like the romantic suspense or ‘gothics’ of the 60’s and 70’s like Mary Stewart’s. Fawcett-Crest published a lot of these and I knew how to recognize their covers. Plus, I always preferred novels set in England, preferably with an old cottage or stone country estate house. I was scanning the shelves and one caught my eye. It was older than my usual ones, but it had a storybook cottage on the cover. I opened it and there written on the flyleaf was my name. Just my first name. I took it as a sign the book was meant for me. The book was The Scent of Water. I fell in love with that book and Elizabeth Goudge. From then on I found most of her books in our city library and always was on the lookout for vintage hardbacks at used bookstores. They used to be easier to find back then. I have read many of her books, several many times, but The Scent of Water is still my favorite.
Such an amazing story! It was meant for you! That book is such a gift and a window into the “transcendent light” for so many people. So glad to have your story here! It’s worth remembering. <3
My mum introduced me to the Little White Horse when I was in my mid-teens. We were on our drive home from a holiday in France. Then when I went to live away from home for the first time at eighteen she leant me her copies of some of Goudge’s other books. The Dean’s Watch and The Rosemary Tree I remember particularly.
I think she knew I needed them. And I’ve re-read them again and again over the years (I’m 42 now). They are full of beauty, as well as good sense.
My time with EG goes back to the early 1970s, when EG was still alive. I had earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Oklahoma State University and had a teaching certificate but was working in an office in another state while my then-husband was in graduate school. We went through some rough times from which the marriage seemed to recover. In support, a coworker gave me The Child from the Sea, then a newly published book. After that, I read every book by EG on which I could get my hands. At that time, EG was being relegated to the Romance section of bookstores. My Aunt Mary, an exact contemporary of EG (birth year and death year), was so pleased. Aunt Mary sent me used paperbacks that she found in used bookstores. She spoke with sadness about deteriorating modern times when a writer like Goudge was allowed to disappear as people seemed to turn to nihilism.
I accumulated all her writings and moved them from home to home. I shared a few with friends. I made my husband read A Bird in the Tree with the hope that we would forgive each other and have a stronger marriage as a result. He responded, “I see why you wanted me to read the book. It was obviously written by an old lady. It was written by Lucilla. It would have turned out differently if it had been written by David.” [I am sharing this as an example of EG’s importance in my life – I do have a marvelously supportive husband now who shares the values of discipline and working from the outside in.]
I shared The Child from the Sea with my Episcopal priest, who returned it without comment – presumably having read a few pages. I shared The Scent of Water with a friend who returned it after reading a few pages: “She really does go into description, doesn’t she?” I shared the Eliot trilogy with a young mother who loved her own children tremendously and loved birds – the books remained on a shelf in her home unread. It seemed EG was no longer relevant.
Please know how much I appreciate this group for engaging with this superb author and encouraging others to do so, thereby helping the books of Elizabeth Goudge to be printed once again and bring their wisdom to us.
Goodness, thank you Mary for being here! I am near tears after reading your story, and so very pleased that we can be together in this space to share what a meaningful work Goudge has done in all of our lives. I have had some veracious readers in my own life turn her books down flat as well - one saying about The Dean's Watch, "I just prefer easy going books these days." (I think it was the history of Ely that turned her off?? not sure but I am baffled.)
Goudge has been labeled as so many things - a romance writer, a sentimentalist, etc - so sometimes the depth of her is hidden from some. But I believe that it was around the pandemic when suddenly her words came to life for so many people! Suddenly, everyone wanted to read her. And that shows how here writing comes from the depths of who she was and of what suffering had taught her. I feel so very privileged to hear a bit of your story too and to understand better now how The Child from the Sea was such an important book or you. It definitely makes me believe in better endings <3 Thanks for sharing, Mary!
I read LWH when I was about eight, it was, I think a Christmas present, so not in poll. Still my favourite. You talk about transcendent moments. Yes,yes,yes. A friend and I call them Goudgian moments. I get them from paintings, when I'm out walking, in old buildings. Something in the light triggers them, and of course in reading the books.
Yes, Goudgian moments and phrases - we speak about them the same here in our house. What a perfect moment to read The Little White Horse when you were 8! Such a gift!
I am so interested about her reasons for so many christmas scenes, that it started during the war . I will never forget reading the Christmas in the ‘white Witch’ to find consolation in that lonely covid Christmas if 2020.
I discovered Goudge because the little white horse was my father’s favourite book when he was a child and he gave it to me for my tenth birthday
Yes, she wrote a Christmas chapter into nearly all of her novels and about half of her short stories are about Christmas as well! She was obsessed with it. She only wrote a few things about Easter - a poem which is very moving called "Easter in the Ward" and of course she included it in God So Loved the World, which is the narrative of Jesus.
Possibly I’m much older than many of the readers here. The Little White Horse was well loved by me as a child in the ‘60’s. In my teenage years new imprints of her adult novels appeared and I first read The Deans Watch, The City of Bells and Towers in the Mist. So lovely to see her wonderful novels being rediscovered by a new generation. And I too am enjoying a lot of re-reading now I have discovered the Elizabeth Goudge book club.
So glad you have found us, Frances! Since I am a relatively new reader myself, it is such a delight for me to help other new readers to find Goudge for the first time. We nearly always have half new readers in our IG readalongs, and I hope to grow that number here on Substack. What a gift to have been reading these wonderful books through the decades! Thanks for sharing!
I think I first heard about Goudge several years ago when The Little White Horse showed up on a children's book list, but I did not actually read it until 2021. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I went on to read The Dean's Watch with you in 2022. I can't remember exactly how I came across your book club, but I'm glad I did! Since then, I begun collecting mostly used copies of her books. I still have a few left to buy. Reading one of her books is such a spiritual experience that it is hard to talk about. My three daughters have all read The Little White Horse, and my youngest has read a couple of her other children's books. I would love for my older teenage daughters to enjoy her more, but so far, they haven't wanted to pick up any more of her books. I've recommended her to two of my friends who have not heeded my advice, so I am glad to have this community to share with. :)
So glad you are here, Stephanie! Yes, it can be difficult to put into words what Goudge can mean to her readers. It is sometimes almost like she really is right here, speaking to what I am going through even as I read about her characters in another time and place. The Dean and The Little White Horse are such wonderful books! So glad you found them.
I didn't answer the poll because I found my first Goudge book in my high school library. It was called The City of Bells and I picked it solely based on the title. I feel in love with her writing and could barely stand ending the book. I went back and read all they all at the high school, then went to our town's public library and read all they had. I still haven't read every one of them but I had picked up multiples of hardback copies over the years, sometimes finding them stuck back in a pile of gritty books.
How silly of me - I left off library when that's how I found her too! Ah, added it now. The Torminster books are so very good and comforting! We will probably start with A City of Bells again next year for readalong! :) So interesting to hear that you fell in love with her writing in high school. My daughters quite enjoy her in middle school and high school as well. I envy their opportunity to grow up with her books in their experience.
I was found by Elizabeth Goudge, age nine, at a friends house by accident one wet afternoon, in the form of a tatty paperback called “The Little White Horse”. My friend had been bought it by her elder sister, and didn’t care for it at all. I on the other hand couldn’t put it down. We were playing hide and seek. I hide in their sister's wardrobe where I found the discarded book. I stayed there for what seemed hours. They gave up and never found me
From the moment the carriage lurches, and Miss Heliotrope, Maria Merryweather and Wiggins fall into each others arms, I was enchanted. The spell was only deepened as Digweed swung from the bell rope, and trundled them through the tunnel.
Such a beautiful story, Deborah! Thanks for sharing it here
Later to this discussion but The Little White Horse was our class story book when I was about seven or eight years old. I was so enthralled with it that it was the first hardback book that I saved up my pocket money to buy at the princely sum of 16/-. I knew that book by heart and her descriptions of places, homes and cathedrals has been a defining influence on me all my life and definitely impacted my choice of many of the places I visited on holiday, including New Zealand.
I did not remember reading her other children’s stories, or if I did they did not stick with me like LWH, but I read her adult books and for my eighteenth birthday asked my parents to buy me the single volume trilogy, The Eliots of Damerosehay, as the story of Lucilla and especially The Herb of Grace was one of my favourites. Other titles I returned to again and again were The Scent of Water and The Castle on the Hill.
I also loved the anthologies of her short stories, such as White Wings, and selections of her novels, especially The Ten Gifts and At the Sign of the Dolphin. They showcase her ability to write about a huge range of characters and give them a depth and a spiritual dimension that is matchless.
Having spent time away from regularly reading her books, getting them for my eReader has encouraged me to pick them up again. I also recently decided I wanted to replace my older Coronet paperbacks with hardback editions and to try to get copies of all her books. I have succeeded in having most of her works now, with just a few of the short story collections missing.
Wonderful to hear, Sandra! How special to find her as a child. :)
Yes, I agree, her short story collections are brilliant. I do wish they would go back into print! So glad to hear that you are finding copies of her books on eReader, as I have heard that helps many people to read them, as well as some vintage copies. They are all a treat.
Many years ago, I was a newly married and my husband and I had just moved to a new city. Several things had happened that were making my adjustment to being a wife in a strange city a difficult adjustment. I was feeling off kilter and a little unbalanced and desperate to find some solace. Of course books have always been what I turn to for all situations in life, particularly emotional upheavals. I had never heard of Elizabeth Goudge but took home her book from the library. The book was "The Scent of Water."
I had been guided to the perfect book to read at that time in my life. I immediately went on to find any of her books anywhere I could. No one else had heard of her then so I often found copies in thrift stores and library sales. Elizabeth Goudge has been my favorite author for over 40 years, and it is gratifying to see her books appreciated by so many today.
The Scent of Water has been rescuing people for many years I would bet! So beautiful that you found it at that moment. Yes, I’m so grateful more can read her stories now. <3 Thank you for sharing your story here!
It's great to read about others' first encounters with E.G. My grandmother passed along some paperbacks to my family, and that included The Dean's Watch. I think I was probably around 10 or 11, and Isaac's work as a clock maker and Polly were the characters that stayed in my mind over the years. Plus the little umbrella for Belle? Then in middle school a teacher had a little lending library, and I must confess that The Little White Horse never got returned. I simply had to be able to read it over and over. The mixture of ethereal and earthy enchanted me. But I never connected the two books by author until I found The Child from the Sea in a little thrift store in my 20s, read and loved that, and started to try to find more by the same author......and here we are some forty years on......
Love Bella’s umbrella 🙌❤️ such a great scene. Amazing that her work has found you in so many places in your life!
Yes! Bella adhered! Love The Dean's Watch. Glad we are doing it soon.
And I share with you the malefaction of a library book not being returned -I think there are two that I absconded with. Glad to share a common love of E.G.
I love this post and survey! Everyone’s origin stories are so interesting.
In my mind, the exact “moment” is a little hazy, strangely enough. I know that years ago my mother shared with me that she loved Elizabeth Goudge; however, I did not start reading her books at that point. In January of 2019 I purchased The Scent of Water. I think I was inspired by the Elizabeth Goudge Bookclub on Bookstagram that I had just discovered! I did not read it until April, around Easter, but it was transformational for me. I had never experienced such deep truths imbedded in fiction. I was determined to read everything by her. So far I’ve read fifteen books by Elizabeth Goudge, so I have a long way to go, but I own almost all of her books. Something for me to focus on during the long weeks and months of the pandemic was collecting Elizabeth Goudge books. It gave me something positive and fun to focus on during a challenging time.
So glad you are here Teresa! It’s so encouraging to hear that Goudge has meant so much to you in the last few years. Each of her books has felt transformational for me and different seasons. Sometimes I’ll even read one that didn’t strike me the first time in the second time it’s exactly the thing I need. It’s amazing how that happens. I’m really looking forward to reading the scent of water again together in 2024. <3
I think I’ve mentioned this on Instagram, but since you asked…. It was the early 80’s and I was a stay-at-home mom at the time with young children and no money for extras. As a treat I would go to a secondhand trade-in bookstore of used paperbacks. (I don’t know how they ever made enough money to pay their rent at even the sub-par mall.) Most paperbacks, especially the older ones I preferred were less than a dollar or even no cost with a trade-in. A lot of romance readers frequented the shop though that wasn’t my thing. I did like the romantic suspense or ‘gothics’ of the 60’s and 70’s like Mary Stewart’s. Fawcett-Crest published a lot of these and I knew how to recognize their covers. Plus, I always preferred novels set in England, preferably with an old cottage or stone country estate house. I was scanning the shelves and one caught my eye. It was older than my usual ones, but it had a storybook cottage on the cover. I opened it and there written on the flyleaf was my name. Just my first name. I took it as a sign the book was meant for me. The book was The Scent of Water. I fell in love with that book and Elizabeth Goudge. From then on I found most of her books in our city library and always was on the lookout for vintage hardbacks at used bookstores. They used to be easier to find back then. I have read many of her books, several many times, but The Scent of Water is still my favorite.
Such an amazing story! It was meant for you! That book is such a gift and a window into the “transcendent light” for so many people. So glad to have your story here! It’s worth remembering. <3
My mum introduced me to the Little White Horse when I was in my mid-teens. We were on our drive home from a holiday in France. Then when I went to live away from home for the first time at eighteen she leant me her copies of some of Goudge’s other books. The Dean’s Watch and The Rosemary Tree I remember particularly.
I think she knew I needed them. And I’ve re-read them again and again over the years (I’m 42 now). They are full of beauty, as well as good sense.
Such lovely memories! I hope that my daughters carry those books with them as well. <3
My time with EG goes back to the early 1970s, when EG was still alive. I had earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Oklahoma State University and had a teaching certificate but was working in an office in another state while my then-husband was in graduate school. We went through some rough times from which the marriage seemed to recover. In support, a coworker gave me The Child from the Sea, then a newly published book. After that, I read every book by EG on which I could get my hands. At that time, EG was being relegated to the Romance section of bookstores. My Aunt Mary, an exact contemporary of EG (birth year and death year), was so pleased. Aunt Mary sent me used paperbacks that she found in used bookstores. She spoke with sadness about deteriorating modern times when a writer like Goudge was allowed to disappear as people seemed to turn to nihilism.
I accumulated all her writings and moved them from home to home. I shared a few with friends. I made my husband read A Bird in the Tree with the hope that we would forgive each other and have a stronger marriage as a result. He responded, “I see why you wanted me to read the book. It was obviously written by an old lady. It was written by Lucilla. It would have turned out differently if it had been written by David.” [I am sharing this as an example of EG’s importance in my life – I do have a marvelously supportive husband now who shares the values of discipline and working from the outside in.]
I shared The Child from the Sea with my Episcopal priest, who returned it without comment – presumably having read a few pages. I shared The Scent of Water with a friend who returned it after reading a few pages: “She really does go into description, doesn’t she?” I shared the Eliot trilogy with a young mother who loved her own children tremendously and loved birds – the books remained on a shelf in her home unread. It seemed EG was no longer relevant.
Please know how much I appreciate this group for engaging with this superb author and encouraging others to do so, thereby helping the books of Elizabeth Goudge to be printed once again and bring their wisdom to us.
Goodness, thank you Mary for being here! I am near tears after reading your story, and so very pleased that we can be together in this space to share what a meaningful work Goudge has done in all of our lives. I have had some veracious readers in my own life turn her books down flat as well - one saying about The Dean's Watch, "I just prefer easy going books these days." (I think it was the history of Ely that turned her off?? not sure but I am baffled.)
Goudge has been labeled as so many things - a romance writer, a sentimentalist, etc - so sometimes the depth of her is hidden from some. But I believe that it was around the pandemic when suddenly her words came to life for so many people! Suddenly, everyone wanted to read her. And that shows how here writing comes from the depths of who she was and of what suffering had taught her. I feel so very privileged to hear a bit of your story too and to understand better now how The Child from the Sea was such an important book or you. It definitely makes me believe in better endings <3 Thanks for sharing, Mary!
I read LWH when I was about eight, it was, I think a Christmas present, so not in poll. Still my favourite. You talk about transcendent moments. Yes,yes,yes. A friend and I call them Goudgian moments. I get them from paintings, when I'm out walking, in old buildings. Something in the light triggers them, and of course in reading the books.
Yes, Goudgian moments and phrases - we speak about them the same here in our house. What a perfect moment to read The Little White Horse when you were 8! Such a gift!
I am so interested about her reasons for so many christmas scenes, that it started during the war . I will never forget reading the Christmas in the ‘white Witch’ to find consolation in that lonely covid Christmas if 2020.
I discovered Goudge because the little white horse was my father’s favourite book when he was a child and he gave it to me for my tenth birthday
What a beautiful legacy from your father <3
Yes, she wrote a Christmas chapter into nearly all of her novels and about half of her short stories are about Christmas as well! She was obsessed with it. She only wrote a few things about Easter - a poem which is very moving called "Easter in the Ward" and of course she included it in God So Loved the World, which is the narrative of Jesus.
Possibly I’m much older than many of the readers here. The Little White Horse was well loved by me as a child in the ‘60’s. In my teenage years new imprints of her adult novels appeared and I first read The Deans Watch, The City of Bells and Towers in the Mist. So lovely to see her wonderful novels being rediscovered by a new generation. And I too am enjoying a lot of re-reading now I have discovered the Elizabeth Goudge book club.
So glad you have found us, Frances! Since I am a relatively new reader myself, it is such a delight for me to help other new readers to find Goudge for the first time. We nearly always have half new readers in our IG readalongs, and I hope to grow that number here on Substack. What a gift to have been reading these wonderful books through the decades! Thanks for sharing!
I think I first heard about Goudge several years ago when The Little White Horse showed up on a children's book list, but I did not actually read it until 2021. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I went on to read The Dean's Watch with you in 2022. I can't remember exactly how I came across your book club, but I'm glad I did! Since then, I begun collecting mostly used copies of her books. I still have a few left to buy. Reading one of her books is such a spiritual experience that it is hard to talk about. My three daughters have all read The Little White Horse, and my youngest has read a couple of her other children's books. I would love for my older teenage daughters to enjoy her more, but so far, they haven't wanted to pick up any more of her books. I've recommended her to two of my friends who have not heeded my advice, so I am glad to have this community to share with. :)
So glad you are here, Stephanie! Yes, it can be difficult to put into words what Goudge can mean to her readers. It is sometimes almost like she really is right here, speaking to what I am going through even as I read about her characters in another time and place. The Dean and The Little White Horse are such wonderful books! So glad you found them.
I also heard of Elizabeth Goudge from Sarah McKenzie but I didn't actually read any until I met you!🥰
It took a few mentions for me to pursue reading her as well, but Sarah M's was the first that I thought - wow, Goudge must be something.
I didn't answer the poll because I found my first Goudge book in my high school library. It was called The City of Bells and I picked it solely based on the title. I feel in love with her writing and could barely stand ending the book. I went back and read all they all at the high school, then went to our town's public library and read all they had. I still haven't read every one of them but I had picked up multiples of hardback copies over the years, sometimes finding them stuck back in a pile of gritty books.
How silly of me - I left off library when that's how I found her too! Ah, added it now. The Torminster books are so very good and comforting! We will probably start with A City of Bells again next year for readalong! :) So interesting to hear that you fell in love with her writing in high school. My daughters quite enjoy her in middle school and high school as well. I envy their opportunity to grow up with her books in their experience.