The White Witch

This book has been sitting on the bookshelf my whole life, but I only noticed it was by Elizabeth Goudge the other day. I love her children's stories, so I was excited to find she wrote some adult books as well. This is set during the English Civil War, but includes many of the elements of her children's stories, including the mix of magic, history, mythology and Christianity; a wise little girl and a bold little boy; flawed adults and a pious pastor. She writes beautifully and there's real depth in the ideas she is covering, especially fanatacism (very relevant!) and different forms of love. The relationship between two "pseudo-gypsies", Yoben and Froniga, form the centre of this story - Froniga is the "white witch" of the title. Goudge's writing reminds me of Eleanor Farjeon's, actually; the kind of stuff I can't imagine being published nowadays, because it's so innocent.