Elizabeth Goudge 1900 - 1984

Elizabeth Goudge Plays

What many people do not realize is that Elizabeth Goudge loved the theater. In Joy of the Snow she tells of her first  visit to the theater. It happened during the First World War. Elizabeth was going home to Ely from school in Hampshire. Her father met her train in London and as she fell into his welcoming embrace, she heard him say, "I am going to take you to your first theatre." She found the whole experience 'enchanting'.

Elizabeth tells us that she had seen some plays before this particular visit to the theatre. She had seen "Peter Pan", "Little Lord Flaunteroy" in amateur productions and the operettas " Merrie England" and "The Pirates of Penzance" but had never gone to the London Theatre. She and her father hurried to The Court Theatre and saw Shakespeares' "Twelfth Night". Goudge says:

"I do not now remember the names of any of the actors except Mary Grey and that great actor Miles Mallerson and in any case I was hardly aware that there were actors because they were the people. The play Flowed on, funny and lovely and touching, another courtly, another world." . . .
. . ."It was over, a supreme experience, but I do not remember any desolation because it had ended. Because of course it had not ended, but was a part of me forever. I was not state-struck. I could never be an actress but from then on, scribbling in my odd moments, I struggled to write plays as well as fairy stories."

Goudge tells us that she later felt such a sense of accomplishment when any of her plays were presented. "The Brontes of Haworth" was her first success. It was produced in London in 1932.

"Joy Will Come Back" was produced in 1937 and "Suomi" in 1938. "Fanny Burney" was produced in Oldham, Lancashire in 1949.  While she lived in Marldon, she wrote a Christmas Play that was produced locally.  The only book of plays I have ever seen is: Three plays: Suomi; The Brontes of Haworth, and Fanny Burney. London: Duckworth, 1939.

Elizabeth Goudge Poetry

Songs and Verses. London: Duckworth, 1947; New York: Coward McCann, 1948.