Personal Memories

Personal Memories

I am an ardent fan of the writings of Miss Goudge and owe her much in the way of the joy it has given me to read her books.  I have collected many (though not all)  of her books, and I have read them over and over since I was a young girl in the 60’s I am English by ancestry, and I love the way Miss Goudge describes the England of long ago.

Unfortunately a short trip to London in ’88 did not allow me to explore those places in her books  to see if they were how I pictured them.  One of these days I want to travel to Pembrokeshire to see Roch Castle, and St. David’s in Wales. My favourite book is Child from the Sea, and I would like to believe that Lucy was not the amoral creature her attackers have portrayed in other publications. I find it very interesting that Diana, Princess of Wales, has a connection to Lucy through common ancestors.  Maybe royal people named Charles just can’t be trusted! The very first time I was reading Child from the Sea, I was with a boyfriend who I just discovered was unfaithful, and I was reading the part where Lucy  “realized that Charles had been unfaithful to her, and that Anne was cruel to tell her so”  and I cried more for Lucy’s hurt than for mine. Every time I read that book I hope things will turn out differently (I know, of course it doesn’t)

Another favourite book I love is the Scent of Water, which was the first book Goudge book I read, and it has always remained so magical for me. I ,too,  have a collection of “little (precious) things”  largely due to the idea in the book of having beautiful tiny precious objects.  I will be leaving them to nieces someday. t has disturbed me to read criticisms of Elizabeth Goudge’s work.  I think she was a wonderful writer, and  she had a way of making the surroundings and events in her stories so real that they became real in my mind, and also she was dead-on in her descriptions of  human issues and feelings, which, of course, are not  bound to the confines of a book.

Her books had beautiful truth in them, which is why I read them over and over. I also love The White Witch, for a different view of the Civil War. I am so glad Miss Goudge lived at Froniga’s house. I would love to visit it someday, and see if the village and surroundings have any of the same feel today as in the story.  The Dean’s Watch, City of Bells, Green Dolphin Street, and Pilgrim’s Inn are also wonderful stories. Thank goodness there are people born to be writers like Elizabeth Goudge. I am sad she is gone and hope that her books continue to be read and appreciated.

Mary Caddell