Serene, and self-revealing

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33775, 22 February 1975, Page 10

Serene, and self-revealing

The Joy ot the Snow. By Elizabeth Goudge. Hodder and Stoughton. 268 pp. N.Z. price $7.30. Elizabeth Goudge has long been a favourite author of the middle-brow reader, and her self-revealing autobiography is written with her usual blend of seriousness and quiet humour. In it she tells how her novel about New Zealand, "Green Dolphin Country,” produced an hilarious reaction from New Zealanders in its film version about 30 years ago. “Green Dolphin Country” as a film took many liberties with geography. But the film industry was not to blame. Miss Goudge frankly admits that the story was based on the adventures of a great-uncle who deserted from the Royal Navy, found a ship bound for Australia, and sailed in her to try his luck in the new world. ' In my book I made it New Zealand because my ignorance of Australia was even more total then my ignorance of New Zealand.”

Miss Goudge was bom in Wells, where her father was head of the Theological College. Later she moved to Ely and then to Oxford when Canon Goudge was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity. An only child (her mother having suffered lasting injury at her birth) she always stayed verv close in spirit to her parents, who were devoted both to her and to each other. This did not prevent her fron? giving much of her heart to Guernsey, the home of her mother’s family, where she spent happy holidays with a clan as united as her own. So, except for inevitable bereavements, “The Joy of the Snow” is a happy book. In it her writings are incidental to the spiritual forces which have governed her life. Nevertheless, she does not underestimate the value of the American prize of £30.000 which she won with "Green Dolphin Country.” This was the financial turning point in the lives of her mother and herself after Canon Goudge died in 1939. It enabled them to settle happily into a cottage at Marldon, Near Paignton, in Devon. Here they spent the war years , until her mother’s death in 1945. Then ; she joined forces with a friend to live in another country cottage in ■ Oxfordshire. ■ This is the material substance of

Elizabeth Goudre’s story, but by no means the chief theme. Psychic, introspective, and with her roots implanted in the Anglican faith she devotes a good deal of her space to the mysteries of the human condition, emphasising the power of love to solve the immense problems facing mankind. Miss Goudge is also a fine delineator of character, and — a truly authentic Englishwoman — has a love and understanding of dogs which she manages to convey to readers. Except during the war years her life has been devoid of peril, and she conveys a sense of serenity in prose at times reminiscent of Jane Austen.