Elizabeth Goudge 1900 - 1984

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 This popular British author was born in Wells, England on April 24, 1900. She was the first and only child Ida Collenette Goudge and Henry Leighton Goudge. Of her childhood, she  wrote, "No child can have lived in lovelier homes than my first two homes, or in a more enchanted city than Wells at the beginning of the century."

These first two homes in Wells were the Tower House and The Rib which is just across the road from the Tower House.  Elizabeth Goudge set three of her novels in Wells: City of Bells, Sister of the Angels and Henrietta's House (This last book was published in the United States as, The Blue Hills). In her novels she calls the city Torminster i - but clearly Torminster is the fictionalized Wells.

As a child Elizabeth's summers were spent on  Guernsey of the Channel Islands with her maternal grandparents. In these years, Elizabeth's mother did not make the trip which was rather daunting in rough seas because her poor health. Still Elizabeth liked Guernsey and in her autobiography, Joy in the Snow, she speaks of the people, especially her Grandfather, with great affection.

In 1911 her father, Henry Leighton Goudge, was transferred from Wells to Ely in NorthEastern England.  Naturally the family moved  with him to this Cathedral city on the hill amidst the fens. She loved Ely and its Cathedral.  Ely became  the setting for her novel  The Dean's Watch. When her father was appointed Regius Professor at Christ Church in Oxford, Elizabeth was sorry to leave Ely. [ It should be noted that Henry Leighton Goudge was a scholar and his works on scripture are still sought by divinity students today].

 Elizabeth  was always drawn to writing buther parents wanted to ensure the she had some marketable skills.  She attended  to Reading University Art School for two years to study handicraft arts. She was not very good at drawing although some years later one of  teacher's  who read on of the novels said  that she put in words what the artist saw of nature.

Her first book,  The Fairy Babies and Other Stories, was a failure. Goudge abaondoned writing for some years and earned income by teaching design and applied arts (weaving, leather work and embroidery) from home when she lived in Ely and Oxford. She really did not become a full time writer until 1938 when Island Magic, a story woven out of some of the Guernsey tales her mother told, was published by Duckworth.  This opened a flood gate and successful novels and short stories followed.

In 1944 she received the MGM Literary Award and the Literary Guild Award for Green Dolphin Street (published in England as Green Dolphin Country) and in 1947 she received the Carnegie Medal for The Little White Horse. This book is the book which J.C. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, said was her favorite as a child.

In Goudge's last years she edited a series of anthologies that reveal the depth and breadth of her own reading and study. The Joy of the Snow is her autobiography and it includes many of the sources of her inspiration and work. A recent work that offers insight into Goudge's life and writings is Sylvia Gower's The World of Elizabeth Goudge published in 2000.

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