Well, what can I say about the Little White Horse except to say I love love love love it. I read it when I was about fifteen when I discovered a copy of it languishing on the shelves of the library at my convent school. This library was incredibly out of date, no new books were ever added as far as I can recall and I remember finding the contents totally dull. With hindsight, I now have a sneaky feeling that there were probably a lot of books there that I might now be interested in, but too late too late…
Anyway, it was a cold day and I was never one for joining in games of netball etc at lunchtime, would much rather be indoors reading (so nothing has changed) and I remember looking through the bookcases (they were the old fashioned kind with glass fronted doors) when I pulled out the Little White Horse. I had seen it there, unread and unloved and had never thought of looking at it, but for some reason on this day I took it out. I started to read and that was that. I just fell in love with it on the spot and took it home with me that evening and read it right through, to the detriment of my homework I might add. Here is the opening of the first chapter:
"The carriage gave another lurch and Maria Merryweather, Miss Heliotrope, and Wiggins once more fell into each other's arms, sighed, gasped, righted themselves and fixed their attention upon those objects which were for each of them, at this trying moment, the source of courage and strength. Maria gazed at her boots. Miss Heliotrope restored her spectacles to their proper position, picked up the worn brown volume of French essays from the floor popped a peppermint into her mouth and peered once more in the dim light at the wiggly black print on the yellowed page. Wiggins meanwhile pursued with his tongue the taste of the long since digested dinner that still lingered among his whiskers"
Who can resist such wonderful characters and names? Maria Merryweather, Miss Heliotrope and Wiggins the dog. Magical and wonderful. Maria is an orphan and on her way to live with her cousin Benjamin Merryweather of Moonacre Manor in the West Country. The actual location is left very vague which is as it should be to preserve the feeling of fairydom. After a long tiring journey they near the Manor and as they are driving through the park, Maria sees in the wood a shining bright white horse which vanishes very quickly so that at first she thinks she has imagined it. Though we do not know this at this stage, the sighting of the Little White Horse, in reality a unicorn, is a sign that Maria has an important task to carry out at Moonacre Manor.
This story has the most delightfully named character throughout: as well as the aforementioned, we have Loveday Minette, Old Parson, Monsieur Cocq Noir, Marmaduke Scarlet, Robin and then the animals: Wrolf, very much as Aslan type figure, Serena the Hare and Zachariah the cat. All of these animals take a full part in the unfolding of the story.
Maria is the catalyst to put right a wrong and to bring to an end the darkness that has affected this lovely valley. Monsieur Cocq Nor and his men, all dressed in black, who steal the sheep and harass the villagers, who have domain over the beach and the shore so that the Silverydew villagers cannot catch fresh fish and the children have never see the sea, hold sway as they feel they have been wronged many years ago. After many adventures Maria and Robin, a boy who used to come and play with her when she lived in London, but who was dismissed by Miss Heliotrope as an imaginary playmate, band together with the animals to give restitution to the Black Men and bring peace to the valley.
It is Elizabeth Goudge's descriptive powers that I found so beguiling and delightful, particularly when it comes to food. Just listen to this:
"There is enough. There is sufficient plum cake, saffron cake, cherry cake, iced fairy cakes, eclairs, gingerbread, meringues, syllabub, almond fingers, rock cakes, chocolate cakes, parkin, cream horns,Devonshire splits, Cornish pasty, jam sandwiches, lemon curd sandwiches, lettuce sandwiches, cinnamon toast and honey toast to feed twenty or more. Have no fear young Mistress; when Marmaduke Scarlet is cook there is always enough"
and
"The table was covered with a checked red and white tablecloth that matched the counterpane, and upon it was set a blue dish full of apples, a yellow jug of milk, a purple plate upon which were piled buttered scones, two green plates and two mugs to match"
Several years ago when I read The Prisoner of Azkaban, the third Harry Potter book, I came across a passage in which JK Rolwing describes the contents of Honeydukes sweet shop:
""There were shelves of the most succulent looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice; fat honey coloured toffees; hundred of different kinds of chocolates in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans;.....Droobles Best Blowing Gum;splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps, peppermint creams shaped like toads, fragile sugar spun quills and exploding bonbons"
As I read this, I was forcibly reminded of the passage I have quoted from the Little White Horse, and the thought crossed my mind that JK Rowling may have read this story herself many years ago. I dismissed this as fanciful and that I was being perhaps just a touch too clever, so you can imagine my stunned amazement when a year or so later JKR in an interview with Jeremy Paxman, said that the Little White Horse was one of her favourite books as child, I let out a whoop of delight at this and told my two girls at great length what a brilliant mother they had able to pick up references and styles and attribute them to the correct author. They were singularly unimpressed if I recall…
A month or two after this interview was aired the Little White Horse was re-issued in paperback with a quote on the front from JKR "this was my favourite children's book". Some publisher latched onto this pretty quickly and jolly good too as it meant that the book was once more widely available. So thank you JK Rowling.
The Little White Horse is about good v evil which, essentially, is the theme of the Harry Potter stories. A determined child, with his friends and an unshaken resolve, prevails and restores happiness and a new order. So it is here in the village of Silverydew and Moonacre Manor. It is an ageless theme and one which never grows stale. I have lost count of the number of times I have read this wonderful story and I feel another read coming on soon. I have some more illustrations to put on Random and I will be popping those on at intervals over the next week.
