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Elizabeth Goudge was a British author that wrote ‘The Little White horse’, a highly popular fantasy novel for children that inspired J.K. Rowling to write her own magical series.

+Biography

Born Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge in the town of Wells, Somerset in 1900, Elizabeth Goudge’s father was a reverend who met her mother while on Holiday. Elizabeth had great memories of her childhood in Wells where horses and carriages remained commonplace for a very long time.

The Goudge family was pretty well off. Her father’s work meant that the family was always moving but that was fine for Elizabeth who was largely sheltered from the many difficulties that life had to offer.

She got to live in many lovely homes even while enjoying the comfort that came from having so many maids and nannies. If there was one complication in Elizabeth’s life, it was her mother’s illness.

Following a bicycle accident, the woman was semi-invalid for a very long time. And after sinusitis caused an abscess to form in her skull, she had to undergo a groundbreaking surgery in London that allowed her to enjoy a semblance of a normal life.

Elizabeth Goudge’s desire to write was born at an early age, primarily the result her privilege. The author was always traveling. Some of her fondest memories are connected to the days she spent with her maternal grandparents at their St. Peters Port town, memories she used to write her first novel (Island Magic).

Elizabeth can trace her journey to publishing success to the day her father was given a canonry appointment at Ely Cathedral and then moved the family to another Cathedral city.

Elizabeth was eleven at the time. She remembers the move because she started spending a lot of time in her schoolroom reading everything from Dickens to Trollope and Bronte.

Interestingly, it was during this time that Elizabeth’s view of the world began to change. Her father started taking her to visit the poor and that revealed to Elizabeth the horrifying state that the people around her where living in.

She couldn’t believe just how crowded and stuffy and noisy the homes were. Not that Elizabeth had the time to worry about such matters. The author’s most formative years were spent in boarding school in Hampshire.

It wasn’t just World War I that shook Elizabeth Goudge’s world at that time. As an only child, the author had grown accustomed to being the center of her small world. In Boarding school, she was just one of many girls.

Elizabeth had few good things to say about those days, mostly because she thought boarding school spent more time telling them how to run a home than showing them how to make a living. But Elizabeth does remember being introduced to English Literature during that period.

It didn’t matter much in the long run, though. By the time Elizabeth Goudge came home from boarding school, she didn’t actually know anything that could be used to earn a living. And she was found to be incompatible with acting and nursing school, the only available career options at the time.

Fortunately, an opportunity opened for the author to attend The Art College. There she mastered a great many things, including the ability to turn her imagination into cohesive stories.

With a resume including stints at Grassendale School (Southbourne) and University College Reading, Elizabeth got a job teaching design and handicrafts. She joined her mother on the move from Oxford to Marldon, Devon when her father died in 1939.

The plan was to stay for a short vacation. But then WW II broke out and the pair made it their home. It was in Marldon that Elizabeth Goudge began to write in earnest, using Marldon as a setting to produce titles like ‘The Little White Horse’ and ‘The Castle on the Hill’.

Elizabeth’s mother passed away in 1951 at which point the author migrated to Oxfordshire where she spent her final three decades of life. Elizabeth died in 1984.

+Literary Career

Elizabeth Goudge’s career as an author did not take off until she moved to Marldon. However, the author began writing as early as 1919. ‘The Fairies’ Baby and Other Stories’ was Elizabeth’s first book.

No one read it, and its failure is probably the reason why Elizabeth often identified ‘Island Magic’ as her first book. That one came out in 1934 and it was a pretty decent hit. The book was written using stories Elizabeth’s mother told her, and she went on to produce more books based on the things she had seen and heard, and the places she had visited as a child.

The author is still best known for ‘The Little White Horse’. Most of Elizabeth Goudge’s books were written with a Christian perspective. Even the most fantastical ones emphasized elements like conversion, sacrifice, and healing.

The author’s love for England was also starkly present in every story she wrote.

For her efforts in writing ‘The Little White Horse’, Elizabeth was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 1946.

+Adaptations

‘The Little White Horse’, Elizabeth’s most popular book, was first adapted in 1994, becoming a television mini-series called ‘Moonacre’. It eventually came back into the public sphere in 2008 when it was translated into a live-action movie called ‘The Secret of Moonacre’.

+The Little White Horse

Maria Merryweather is an orphan who is sent to live with Sir Benjamin, her uncle, at the Moonacre mansion. Maria initially believes that she is blessed to live at the manor, not only because of the paradise that it is but also because of her uncle’s kind and funny demeanor.

However, even with all the beauty that she encounters, Maria cannot help but think that there’s a sad undertone to Moonacre Manor. There’s a secret in her new home, a tragedy from long ago that Maria must uncover.

+Linnets and Valerians

Robert, Betsy, Nan, and Timothy have had enough of their ruthless grandmother. When she decides to lock them away in separate rooms for a perceived slight, the kids use that opportunity to escape into the village.

They come across a pony that leads them to their Uncle Ambrose’s house. The gruff but kind man opens his doors to the children, allowing them to trample through his sprawling manor.

The siblings meet Ambrose’s many house guests and learn that magic does indeed exist in the world but it is often accompanied by a sliver of evil.

2 Responses to “Elizabeth Goudge”

1. Lisa: 2 years ago

   Beautifully communicated!

   Reply
2. Frances Anne Smeath: 3 years ago

   While I have not read all of her novels yet, I have delved deeply (and repeatedly, because so satisfying on so many levels) into The Bird in the Tree, The Dean’s Watch and particularly, The Scent of Water. I seem to remember that C. S. Lewis was the one who described Tolkien’s work as “good beyond hope.” This is also true, I believe, of The Scent of Water. Ms. Goudge’s pervasively honest, incremental revealing of her characters’ outer motives, inner realities, and choices to avoid or embrace their varied experiences is so beautifully meshed with the just-plain-story that you don’t notice the artistry until you take time to reflect on it after finishing the book. There are passages, especially in the latter third of the book, that are so spiritually on fire that it takes your breath away or brings unexpected tears of appreciation for the sheer beauty of the language. She is never combative or strident or haranguing. She seems to have the rarest of gifts as a writer: to open a corridor between the hearts of her characters and the hearts of her readers and leave the latter free to walk the corridor at will. I’m deeply grateful to have her books in my library and plan to read many more of them soon. Thanks for letting me comment!

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