The Little White Horse

This is my well loved, very well worn copy of The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. It was my absolute favourite book as a child as so many aspects of the story appealed to me. I was interested to hear JK Rowling say that this book influenced the Harry Potter stories and looking back I can see the connection, especially in the detailed descriptions of buildings and food and animals which appealed to me in both books. Imagine Harrys dormitory at Hogwarts and compare it with this excerpt from The Little White Horse describing the first time Maria sees her new room;
'The turret stairs ended at a door so small that a large grown up could not possibly have gotten through it...it was of silvery grey oak studded with silver nails, and it had a knocker made of the smallest, daintiest horseshoe Maria had ever seen...Maria's room...was at the top of the tower, and the tower was a round one, so Maria's room was circular...it had  three windows, two narrow lancet windows and one with a a large window seat set in the thickness of the wall...in each of these windows stood beautiful silver branched candlesticks...The ceiling was vaulted and delicate ribbings of stone curved over Maria's head like the branches of a tree, meeting at the highest point of the ceiling in a carved representation of a sickle moon surrounded by stars.
There was no carpet upon the silvery oak floor, but a little white sheepskin lay beside the bed, so that Maria's bare toes should meet something warm and soft when they went floorwards of a morning. The bed was a little four poster, hung with pale blue silk curtains embroidered with silver stars...the fireplace was the tiniest she had ever seen...it was big enough for the fire of pine cones and applewood that burned in it, filling the room with fragrance...Over the fireplace was a shelf and on it stood a blue wooden box filled with dainty biscuits with sugar flowers on them, in case she should feel hungry between meals.

The very idea of a four poster bed, fireplace and never ending supply of biscuits in a bedroom had a profound effect on my child psyche and afterwards, I eyed with dissatisfaction, the ET poster, pink and white curtains and conventional furniture that adorned my own bedroom (all chosen with great satisfaction pre TLWH by me I should add!) And don't even get me started on the carefully rationed Breakaway bars stored in a Tupperware box on top of the kitchen cupboard.

I suppose this book would be considered incredibly old fashioned by today's standards in terms of childrens literature but it's quaint language and rather wistful, bittersweet ending only makes me love it more.