Ian Handford: The beloved author whose stories found their heart in Devon

In this series of features Ian l Handford (President of Torbay Civic Society) looks at famous individuals who lived in Torbay in the 20th century.

Elizabeth Goudge (Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge) - Part One of Two.

Elizabeth was the only child of the Reverend Henry Leighton Goudge DD - Vice Principal of Wells Theological College and his wife Ida de Beauchamp Collenette from the Isle of Guernsey, Born on April 24th 1900 at Wells Somerset, Elizabeth would later move to Marldon near Torbay where eventually she remained for over eleven years.

Her earliest years in Wells lasted until her fathers duties took them to Ely another Cathedral City where from age fourteen Elizabeth would attend the Grassendale Boarding School Southbourne before finally Reading College where she studied art. 

She would soon be teaching design and handicrafts in Ely, before the family moved again in 1923 when her father was appointed Regus Professor of Divinity at Oxford. Elizabeth chose to live with her parents and now taught basket and leather-tooling in Oxford until story telling and writing entered her life through scripts for the local theatre. That formed the catalyst for her writing novels and then poetry etc.

Today Elizabeth is remembered for her many novels although she did write a great deal of poetry and books for children. The first major script for a London play which was not particularly successful, but this failed to deter her first novel “Island Magic” - a childhood memory of holidays taken on the Isle of Guernsey which was enormously successful.

Published in 1934 it was so successful in Britain that publihers in America produced her stories and novels including the “City of Bells” based on the bells of Wells Cathedral and even “Towers in the Mist” about Oxford in the sixteenth century.

But when Elizabeth suffered a nervous breakdown through hard work and a year or so later her father died, she joined her mother now an invalid and left Oxford for Marldon in Devon. 

Eventually by 1939 Elizabeth had decided to base herself initially at Anthony Cottage in Totnes Road where she was near her mother and later she had built the Providence Cottage at Westerland near Devon from where she could both nurse Ida and work during her final years.

When Ida died Elizabeth chose to remain in Marldon for a total of eleven years before she finally returned to Oxfordshire and purchased Rose Cottage at Dog Lane at Henley-on-Thames. She would now share this for life with her companion Jessie Monroe.

Her writing never stopped and her next novel “Green Dolphin Country” published in America as “Green Dolphin Street” in 1944, became so admired that in America it won the MGM Prize of 125,000 dollars, making this in financial terms her most lucrative book to date. 

It tells of how a great uncle in Guernsey had emigrated before then writing to attract his bride to be, but gets the two sisters mixed up and eventually marries - the wrong sister. 

Then another award winning novel would follow titled “The Little White Horse” in 1947 although not published until 1951 and concerns a sweet story of mystery set in the 1840’s, to some editors it especially appealed “to imaginative children”. 

Soon followed by the novel “Gentian Hill” , a legend story about the “Chapel of St Michael” in Napoleonic times, this Chapel can still be visited in Torquay sitting on the hill opposite Torre Station. 

This was later followed by her novel “The Child of the Sea” published in 1970 which concerns forgiveness, a story of Lucy Waters the secret wife of Charles II.

Elizabeth created a large number of novels concerning the value of families and how “life often tests the human spirit and its feelings for family”. Some editors believed she based much of her work on the “Eliot’s of Damerosehay of Lymington” a country residence which she recalled as a child so linked the stories to her fathers bungalow at Barton-on-Sea, being a special place of retreat when he was on vacation. 

Elizabeth inherited her mother's good looks although always seemed fragile, whereas most who knew her said she was strong in spirit. She also adored the unhurried life in the country, which is why she chose to spend the rest of her life in the country cottage in Dog Lane on Peppard Common at Henley.

With her companion and a succession of dogs living at Dog Lane cottage she only once admitted to giving an interviewer her own thoughts about writing. (To be continued next week in part two)