The White Witch

In 17th-century Oxfordshire, Margaret waits in the manor for news from her husbandwhos fighting for the cause of Parliament. At Fronigas hearth sits the wise woman whose moral clarity brings life to the community. Goudges novel explores the cost of zeal and the power of healing when village life is ruptured by national conflict.

Elizabeth Goudge (1900 1984) was a British novelist born into the home of an Anglican priest and theologian. She wrote children s books as well as novels her "Green Dolphin Street" was made into a 1947 Academy-Award winning film starring Lana Turner, Van Heflin, and Donna Reed. In style and themes she parallels English writers such as the creator of the Miss Read series, as well mirroring the spiritual depth found in George MacDonald s Victorian novels. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she won the Carnegie Award in 1947 for "The Little
White Horse," which is J. K. Rowling s favorite children s book."

The White Witch is a story set at the time of the beginning of the English Civil War and the men and women drawn into it on both sides. Robert Haslewood, the local squire turns puritan and follows his boyhood hero to war leaving his children and wife behind him. His cousin Froniga, half gypsy and the White Witch of the title, a wise woman with the power of healing lives in danger. Her gypsy cousins sometimes camp near her but will always move on. They have befriended Yomen, who conceals a grand past but is now a tinker and royalist spy. He loves the puritan Froniga. A journey man painter, Francis, delights in painting the Haslewood children while spying too for the royalist cause. Their lives entwine until the bloodiness of war forces them to be loyal to their side whatever their personal ties, threatening to destroy friendships and humanity and kindness in the process.

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