Best Selling Books by Elizabeth Goudge

A captivating story filled with English charm, luminous wisdom, and astonishing spiritual insight. Mary Lindsay is a born and bred Londoner who has enjoyed her city life—a prestigious job, and friends with whom she takes in the city pleasures of theatre, art and music. But fleeting memories of a childhood visit to her father’s elderly cousin out in the country are revived with the news that the woman has willed her home, the Laurels, to Mary. She makes an uncharacteristically sudden and life-changing decision to leave London for the country. The gradual unfolding of her understanding of herself, of the now-deceased woman who has bequeathed her home to Mary, and of the people of Appleshaw, all weave together in a most memorable story of love’s redemptive power.

"I absolutely adored The Little White Horse."--J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter series Winner of the Carnegie Medal When orphaned young Maria Merryweather arrives at Moonacre Manor, she feels as if she''s entered Paradise. Her new guardian, her uncle Sir Benjamin, is kind and funny; the Manor itself feels like home right away; and every person and animal she meets is like an old friend. But there is something incredibly sad beneath all of this beauty and comfort--a tragedy that happened years ago, shadowing Moonacre Manor and the town around it--and Maria is determined to learn about it, change it, and give her own life story a happy ending. But what can one solitary girl do?

The War had left him a shattered man, but its toll was not nearly so great as losing the love of his life. Few understand Elliot’s anguish at losing Nadine. He came back from the War a shattered and lonely man. But his return to the Eliot family refuge on England’s Hampshire coast is gradually pushing back the dark waters of soul and spirit. Nadine and her husband have settled with their children in a wonderful old inn not far away. Surrounded by a wild and mysterious wood, the guesthouse seems to be able to mend minds and bodies. Pilgrims from the past—and new ones now finding their way to this healing comforting oasis—sweep readers into a story of intertwining destinies. Of love lost . . . and love forever gained.

The family seemed intricately bound together with threads frayed with age, yet still strong and permanent . . . until he came. Despite the “crinkled pink petals strewn in the path of those who would have preferred red,” four generations of Eliots have survived the War and are moving forward. The family’s remarkable matriarch Lucilla is still with them, though she’s facing the dark night of the soul. All is turned on its head with the arrival of Sebastian, another survivor of WWII. He has a story far more painful than any of the Eliots. While with them, he wrestles with questions about his own disconnected existence.

An impossible choice . . . and a lifetime of care and nurture could vanish in a moment. Matriarch of the family, Lucilla has spent a lifetime making the Hampshire estate of Damerosehay a haven for the Eliots. When her favorite grandson, David, falls in love with a woman who belongs to another, Lucilla sees her most cherished ambitions put at risk. But can she persuade David and Nadine to put duty before love?

A compelling saga of an unlikely friendship threaded together by redemption and grace The setting is a remote mid-nineteenth-century town in England and its grand cathedral. The cathedral Dean, Adam Ayscough, holds a deep love for his parishioners and townspeople, but he is held captive by an irrational shyness and intimidating manner. The Dean and Isaac Peabody, an obscure watchmaker who does not think he or God have anything in common, strike up an unlikely friendship. This leads to an unusual spiritual awakening that touches the entire community. A richly imaginative and inspiring story with appealing and unique characters, this novel is a favorite of Goudge s fans. "

First published in the US by Coward-McCann in 1949, Gentian Hill is Elizabeth Goudge''s tour de force exploring with her usual skill the themes that always touch the heart: endurance, courage, and love. Meet Stella Sprigg, adopted daughter of the Sprigg family, and follow her story of love and hope in a time where it hardly exists.

Jocelyn Irvin, a dispirited Boer War veteran, opens a bookshop in an English cathedral town and produces a play started by a former occupant.

Still tormented by the failure of her love affair with David Eliot, Nadine has misgivings about bringing her family to the enchanting old inn that is so near to the Eliot family home. But as the tranquil Hampshire countryside weaves its spell, all players in the drama come to discover a measure of peace and contentment.

Michael Stone was once a famous author. That was before he went to prison. Now, just released, he needs to get his bearings. Weighed down by failure and despair, Belmaray seems to offer him a quiet rural escape from the past. In the dawning beauty of that lovely Devon spring he finds new happiness and peace. It is through John Wentworth''s characteristic kindness that Michael first meets the vicarage family: John, a country vicar far less ineffectual than he believes himself to be, his inexplicably discontented wife Daphne, and their three daughters. Harriet, John''s old nanny, deals impatiently with a world to which she cannot actively contribute. And at the grim little school in Silverbridge, facing life with the zest of a born fighter, is red-haired Mary O''Hara . . .

Against the pomp and pageantry of turbulent seventeenth-century England, Elizabeth Goudge weaves the poignant tale of Lucy Walter, the proud and beautiful secret wife of Charles II. Here is a subtle portrait of a deeply good and fascinating woman. From her early childhood in a castle by the sea in Wales evoked as only Elizabeth Goudge can evoke the joys and pangs of childhood to her tragic estrangement from the king and her death in Paris at the age of twenty-eight, Lucy Walter lived to the full a life of intense joy and equally intense drama. Miss Goudge portrays brilliantly a young love almost too ecstatic to bear. Equally moving is her characterization of Lucy a spirited woman caught up in the cataclysmic wars and disruptive revolution of a tumultuous era. London at the time of the Great Fire, Paris when British royalty fled to the sanctuary of the Louvre, Brussels and The Hague against this rich panoramic background a master storyteller traces the life and loves of an extraordinary woman. "The Child from the Sea" is a superbly colorful and romantic historical novel alive with brilliant cameos and infused with a spiritual essence rare in our times."

First published in 1944, ''Green Dolphin Country'' is a magnificent epic of love, courage and selfless devotion, set in the Channel Islands and New Zealand in the nineteenth century, written with Elizabeth Goudge''s inimitable feeling for the intricacies of human emotions. Though the book is fiction, and the characters not portraits, it is based on fact. A stunning tale of loss and self-sacrifice, it is truly one of the most memorable love stories of the last century.

It''s late 16th-century London and awkward teenager Faithful travels to Oxford to study in England''s great university. When Canon Leigh takes him in, Faithful enters into a family as exciting and educational as the university itself. Woven into the narratives of Faithful and the canon''s daughter Joyeuce is a coming-of-age tale of young love and hope!

The White Witch is a story set at the time of the beginning of the English Civil War and the men and women drawn into it on both sides. Robert Haslewood, the local squire turns puritan and follows his boyhood hero to war leaving his children and wife behind him. His cousin Froniga, half gypsy and the White Witch of the title, a wise woman with the power of healing lives in danger. Her gypsy cousins sometimes camp near her but will always move on. They have befriended Yomen, who conceals a grand past but is now a tinker and royalist spy. He loves the puritan Froniga. A journey man painter, Francis, delights in painting the Haslewood children while spying too for the royalist cause. Their lives entwine until the bloodiness of war forces them to be loyal to their side whatever their personal ties, threatening to destroy friendships and humanity and kindness in the process.

This charming, magical story from award-winning author Elizabeth Goudge beautifully depicts early twentieth century English country life while conjuring an air of magical adventure. Written by the author who inspired J.K. Rowling, it is full of vivid characters, battles between good and evil and wonderful spell-binding moments. Locked away in separate rooms as punishment by their ruthless grandmother, Nan, Robert, Timothy and Betsy decide to make their escape ? out of the house, out of the garden and into the village. Commandeering a pony and trap, the children and their dog are led away as the pony makes his way nonchalantly home. The ponyOCOs destination happens to be a house that belongs to the childrenOCOs uncle Ambrose. Gruff but loveable Uncle Ambrose agrees to take them under his wing, letting the children have free reign in his sprawling manor house and surrounding countryside. Befriending the motley collection of house guests including an owl, a giant cat and a servant who converses with bees, and getting to know the miscellaneous inhabitants of the village, the four siblings discover a life in which magic and reality are curiously intermingled and evil and tragedy lurk never far away. Winner of Hesperus PressOCO ?Uncover a ChildrenOCOs Classic CompetitionOCO, The Runaways is a truly charming story from a bygone era."

Bored with the distractions of London, Judy Cameron insists on taking herself, her parents and her fiance to remote Glen Suilag in the Scottish Highlands. Leaving behind the busy whirl of the capital, she becomes absorbed in an unknown and yet strangely familiar world. As Judy explores the house and glen, secrets begin to unravel and questions arise that she must find the answers to. Why does the strange house feel so familiar? How does she know the laird, Ian Macdonald? Why does she feel so terrified of the middle window in the parlour? And who is the mysterious Judith who haunts her dreams?

The captivating story of the world''s favorite saint is now retold for a modern audience by one of the great novelists of our time. Perhaps more than any other figure in Christian history since Jesus Christ, Saint Francis of Assisi has captured our imagination, for his is a story of extreme self-sacrifice, of love to God and man. How could this wealthy, handsome youth cast away all the advantages that were his by birth and choose instead a career of poverty and humility? How could he attract members of all strata of society to his mission? And how, when his order became established throughout Europe, could he renounce great personal power and humbly continue his life''s work? Here is Francis, from his twelfth-century boyhood to his life as a missionary roaming the very boundaries of the known world. Here too are the men and women who followed him--Bernard de Quintavalle, the rich businessman; Peter Cathanii, the lawyer; Brother Giles, the farmer''s son; Lady Clare; and so many others--all drawn together by the personal magnetism and humble faith of their leader, all re-created by bestselling novelist Elizabeth Goudge against a rich medieval canvas.

A Christmas Book contains nine different Christmas stories. Elizabeth Goudge captues what she regards as the essenial spirit of Christmas-a Christmas free of commercialism, false sophistication, and forced good spirits.

Story of a picnic in Torminster, at which each guest makes a wish.

Left in the care of their strict grandmother, the four Linnet children still have a happy summer with Uncle Ambrose, his one-legged gardener, and the people of a small English village.

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Five nice children, naughty little Jane, their dogs, and Matilda the wicked donkey meet some smugglers, free traders, and a spy who bewitches the countryside with marvelous music.

A collection of all-new Christmas stories.

A little girl is the central figure of an unfinished fresco on the walls of a cathedral chapel.

Island Magic (1934), a beautiful story of the Channel Islands in the nineteenth century, was Elizabeth Goudge''s first novel and stands as one of her finest. It tells of Rachel and Andre du Froq and their exuberant children, and the mysterious stranger who washes up from the sea and becomes entwined in their lives. [Also available: the sequel, "Make-Believe" by Elizabeth Goudge.]

Elizabeth Goudge (1900-1984) was a prolific British author of novels, children''s fantasies, and inspirational works. She is widely loved for her elegant prose, profound insight into human personalities, and vivid descriptions of beauty.Green Dolphin Street (1944) is Elizabeth Goudge''s most famous novel for adults, winner of a Literary Guild award and adapted into a movie starring Lana Turner. A romance like no other, it is a saga of human and divine love spanning decades and the globe--from the Channel Islands to New Zealand. The Times of London praised the book as "a story of ultimate love, determination, devotion and forgiveness, powerfully and yet beautifully written." This new edition is part of the Elizabeth Goudge Classics series.

In Make-Believe, we rejoin Andre and Rachel du Frocq and their five children, the delightful family from Elizabeth Goudge''s first novel, Island Magic. Few authors have captured the spirit of childhood as Goudge does in these stories. This new edition of the long out-of-print book includes the original illustrations by Walter Hodges.

When best friends Jay, Franny, Emerson and Stevie reunite at their fifteen year college reunion, they catch up on their accomplishments and goals and learn the importance of friendship and acceptance.