Elizabeth Goudge

Favorite British storyteller
#1 New York Times bestselling author
Winner of a Carnegie Medal for best children’s book

Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge (1900–1984) was one of the most popular British novelists of the twentieth century. She had two #1 New York Times bestsellers: Green Dolphin Street (1944) and Pilgrim’s Inn (1948); the first was made into an Academy Award–winning film. Read Full Biography

Goudge also wrote many acclaimed children’s books. The Little White Horse, which Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling has said was her favorite book as a child, won the 1946 Carnegie Medal as the most outstanding British children’s book of the year.

Elizabeth Goudge’s Christian spirituality pervades all her work, but nowhere as explicitly as in her books God So Loved the World: The Story of Jesus Christ and My God and My All: The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi. The New York Times wrote of her work, “Elizabeth Goudge’s novels, long or short, have always been distinguished by a quality of lyrical joyousness more usually associated with poetry than with prose and, perhaps, with music than with writing.”

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The tales collected in Easter Stories: Classic Tales for the Holy Season don’t always mention Jesus, nor even the usual tropes like sunlight and springtime. But each reveal a particular melody of the Easter story. The lovingly crafted volume, edited by Miriam LeBlanc and published by Plough, features original woodcuts by Lisa Toth for each tale…. Reading these Easter tales invites our own stories to be shaped, too, by the Story, for our own hearts to thaw and for our imaginations to be steeped in the waters of resurrection.

Tessa Carman, Mere Orthodoxy
The heart of Easter can be found in the pages of this collection of read-aloud tales. Step inside the works of well-known authors such as C.S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, and others, as they explore the true meaning of the Easter season. Short and spiritual, these stories are perfect to be read again and again.

US Catholic
This thoughtfully curated collection is remarkable for its range and breadth. The stories come from all over the world and represent many genres, such as parables, animal fables, historical fiction, fairy tales and Christian fantasy. Most of the stories are from the first half of the 20th century, but the earliest is from an 1857 edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and the most recent selections were written in 2015. Definitely read these stories at Easter, but keep the book close and pull it out whenever you and your family need a reminder of the great Easter themes of transformation, reconciliation and the triumph of life over death.

Clare Walker, National Catholic Register
Each step of this journey is detailed with poetic attention: Francis’s sacrifice juxtaposed to the comfort of the wealthy, Francis’s devotion measured against reluctance of those comfortable with life as is. The ins and outs of his journey take on meditative turns: he is honored, he is rejected, he takes on acolytes, his demands lead to doubt. Goudge leads him on such journeys with respect, and the effects of her attentions are moving. Read more

Foreword Reviews
Elizabeth Goudge’s novels, long or short, have always been distinguished by a quality of lyrical joyousness more usually associated with poetry than with prose and, perhaps, with music than with writing.

New York Times
An absorbing story…Elizabeth Goudge makes skillful use of contemporary sources, St. Francis’s own writings and those of his followers, and the legends – employing them with the skill of a gifted storyteller. A superb recreation of a wonderful personality, who even today holds a unique place in people’s imagination and hearts.

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Alice von Hildebrand

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