Sanctuary

    "Yet even as he went leaping down the drive [...] Ben was conscious as always of the beauty of the oak-wood, and of the garden that he could see through the iron gateway in the old high red brick wall that was skirted by the drive as it wound from the east side of the house, where the porch and the front door faced across the marshes to the silver line of the Estuary, down through the wood to the gate. But that one glimpse was enough for Ben. In his mind's eye, as he ran on, he could see the green grass paths between the lavender hedges, the purple masses of the Michaelmas daisies with the butterflies sunning their wings upon them, the glowing spires of the golden rod and the flames of the dahlias and petunias, the frail late autumn roses and the ilex tree by the house where the blackbird sang. He could see the colour of it, and smell the damp sweet scent of it, and feel how it lived and breathed within its old brick walls just to give sanctuary to those who needed it."

    From The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge.

Comments

[Fran]

I adored Elizabeth Goudge when a teenager and have many of her books still. Occasionally I re-read, often when I need something soothing yet engaging. She has such powers of description, such as the above passage; a real story teller.

[Cornflower]

I very much enjoy her descriptive passages (and much else besides); hers is a more leisurely form of storytelling.