Elizabeth Goudge
Elizabeth Goudge was a British author renowned for her fiction that blends elements of history, romance, religion, and fantasy, often set in the picturesque cathedral towns of England and the Channel Islands. Born in 1900 in Wells, Somerset, she was the only child of a theological college principal and an Anglo-French mother from Guernsey. Goudge's early education emphasized writing, leading her to teach art and crafts while continuing to pursue her passion for storytelling. Her literary career took off with her first novel, "Island Magic," in 1934, and she is particularly celebrated for her two best-known works: "Green Dolphin Country," a best-seller published in 1944, and "The Little White Horse," awarded the Carnegie Medal in 1946. Goudge's work is distinguished by its vivid character development, especially of elderly figures, and a moralistic tone. After the death of her mother in 1951, she settled in Henley-on-Thames, where she lived until her passing in 1984. Throughout her life, Goudge's writing was inspired by her rich family history and the beauty of her surroundings.
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Subject Terms
Elizabeth Goudge
Writer
- Born: 1900
- Birthplace: Wells, Somerset, England
- Died: 1984
- Place of death: Near Henley-on-Thames, England
Biography
Elizabeth Goudge is best known for creating works fiction that contain elements of history, romance, religion, and fantasy. They are generally set in the cathedral towns of Britain familiar to her family or in the Channel Islands native to her mother and grandparents. Goudge, an only child, was born in 1900 in Wells, Somerset, England, where her father, Dr. Henry Leighton Goudge, was principal of the theological college. Her mother, Ida de Beauchamp (Collenette) Goudge, came from an Anglo French family in Guernsey. In 1911, Goudge moved to Ely when her father was made a canon of Ely Cathedral. She was sent to Grassendale School in Southbourne, Hampshire, at the age of fourteen, where she excelled in English and writing.
Her parents, worried about the insecurity of a career in writing, urged her toward the more practical career of teaching applied art and handicrafts. She attended Reading University School of Art for two years, after which she taught weaving, leatherwork, and embroidery in her home, first in Ely and then at Oxford University, from 1922 to 1932. Goudge had moved to Oxford in 1923, when her father was appointed to the prestigious position of Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford. Goudge and her mother lived there until her father’s death in 1939, when they moved to a cottage in Devonshire. While she was teaching art, Goudge continued to write, drawing upon her experiences in the beautiful cathedral towns of England and upon the summers she spent with her grandparents in Guernsey. Goudge credited her mother’s support and storytelling ability as the inspiration for her work as a writer.
In her prolific career, beginning with a play on the Brontës in 1932 and her first novel, Island Magic (1934), Goudge wrote numerous novels for both adults and young people. She is noted for her descriptions of the English countryside, her detailed and vivid development of character (particularly elderly characters), and a strong moralistic and sometimes religious tone. Much of her reputation rests on two novels, one for adults and one for young people. The first, published in 1944, was Green Dolphin Country (published as Green Dolphin Streets in the United States), which was based on the real-life experience of her Guernsey great-uncle, who found himself ensnared in a misunderstanding about which of two sisters he intended to marry. The story, set mostly in New Zealand, became a best-seller, won the MGM Literary Award, and was made into a Hollywood film. Her complex and intriguing novel for young people, The Little White Horse (1946), was praised by the author of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1946.
After her mother died in 1951, Goudge moved to Rose Cottage, a seventeenth century cottage in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, where she lived with a companion, Jessie Monroe, for twenty-one years. Goudge published her autobiography, The Joy of the Snow, in 1974. She died near Henley-on-Thames in 1984.