Beyond the Snow: The Life and Faith of Elizabeth Goudge

by Christine Rawlins

"This is a much-needed study of a remarkable life. Elizabeth Goudge was not only a sensitive and acute artist in fiction, but a profoundly insightful commentator on the processes of growing up spiritually and morally. She fully deserves the kind of sympathetic and appreciative exploration provided by this book." Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury Elizabeth Goudge once said she had "done no exciting things" - none of the "wonderful things that some people do". Yet her achievement was wonderful. From the stuff of her own life - even the hard things like depression and nervous breakdown, even the Christian faith that upheld her throughout - she created best-selling books that were read, worldwide, throughout the forty years of her career and are still being read today. J.K. Rowling has said that her favourite childhood book was The Little White Horse - recently filmed as The Secret of Moonacre. Beyond the Snow is an appreciation of Miss Goudge's life and work that attempts to look beyond her memoires, by linking them to her books and letters and the recollections of family and friends. It examines in particular her Christian faith and its illuminating influence on everything she did, and was. As Alan Walton said, reviewing The Joy of the Snow - "there is nobody like her."

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

548 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2015

About the author

Things I love...
My family; my friendly church; books (of course!); music; singing; my home and garden; the sea; being busy; being creative with things like gardening and woodwork; walking in the countryside; historic buildings; theatre and galleries.
Would love to hear from you!

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grateful to Christine Rawlins to have won this book. I had never previously read Elizabeth Goudge , this thorough, respectful look at her life,faith and works made me want to but needing to listen to most fiction I have been disappointed by the lack of her work available in audiobook form, I managed to access The White Witch, which I loved.
It took a while to get used to the many quotations from her books interspersed throughout the book. I spent a long time reading this ,reading others in between the sections of her life and as it’s physically quite heavy it was a bit difficult for weak arms.
Recommend to her admirers and newcomers like myself.

[Jossie Solheim · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, I especially liked how the author used snippets of Elizabeths own work to really help you to get to know Elizabeth better. Sadly though there were places where the book felt a little repetitive and dole, making it hard to stay engaged.

[Diane Boley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but needs editing

This has great details of her life and books, weaving them together well, but it needed a good editor. It was much too long and detailed and I was barely able to finish it.

[Mary Alice · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is too long (475 pages) and it has too many long quotations (1618 footnotes. It is better to read books by Elizabeth Goudge than this one.

[Susan Peak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to read about Elizabeth Goudge from an external perspective. About a third if not more of this book is quotations so don't be put off by the 780 page length! Very accessible and readable

[Michelle Grayce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting memoir of Elizabeth Goudge's life.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the lyrical and informative style, to begin with, but I did grow tired of the repetition of commentary interspersed with quoted paragraphs..!

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough look at Elizabeth Goudge's life. I cannot fault the enormous amount of work Christine Rawlins has put into this biography. A good read.