Pick up an Elizabeth Goudge novel and from the first page you will feel your shoulders drop. Miss Goudge clearly had a great gift for joy and it shines through every passage and gives comfort and confidence to the reader: you know where you are with her, you know that all will be well and the greater good will be served - even at some personal sacrifice - but 'right' will triumph in the end.
The Bird in the Tree, set in the Autumn of 1938, is the first of three books about the Eliots of Damerosehay, an idyllic Hampshire house presided over by doughty matriarch Lucilla. In terms of plot, suffice to say that there is an act of wrong-headedness, a confession, and a crisis of conscience, and I'll leave all the details for you to discover, but beyond that there is typical Goudge delight in the natural world, specifically an enchanting garden and a wild, seaside setting, a lightly handled touch of the supernatural, an interesting assembly of characters, and an appreciation - tempered with modesty and dignity - of beautiful things.
There's little more to say other than to urge you to read EG if you haven't already done so and are in the mood for something to satisfy, soothe and uplift.
Edited to add: I think my favourite Elizabeth Goudge so far (though it's hard to choose) is this one.
