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And my particular recommendation – assuming you’ve already progressed through your annual re-read of Harry Potter – is Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Not because fantasy is an escape from the real world, but because it gives you an alternate world to help better understand our own. In difficult times, I would always turn to fantasy. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (Scholastic) Follow Rebecca via Twitter and see her blog here. With weeks or even months of bountiful reading time ahead, you may just find it becomes one of yours.Ĭhosen by our writer Rebecca Clark. The Little White Horse was a childhood favourite, and I’m bringing it out again now as one of my books in exactly that ‘known and loved’ category.
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Refreshing my memories of the book, I stumbled on a rather fitting Goudge quote: “In times of storm and tempest, of indecision and desolation, a book already known and loved makes better reading than something new and untried … nothing is so warming and companionable”. But it was published in 1946, and is set in 1842, and is such a charming book in all other ways that I forgive it these things. It is a bit outdated in parts, with too much veneration of supposed feminine virtues, and some Narnia-esque religious undertones that I have never much cared for. Rowling cites among the inspiration for the Hogwarts’ feasts).
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All of this is wrapped up in Goudge’s exquisite renderings of characters, interiors and the natural world, and punctuated with lavish descriptions of the food being eaten (which J.K. What follows is a wonderful fairytale-like story of past wrongs being righted, old loves reunited, and wicked people being redeemed. In periods of anxiety and hardship do people want to read something that tells of good triumphing over bad? Do they want escapism, a world that feels far removed from this one? Do they want a book that comforts, or one which provides hope? There are books I could recommend in each of those categories, but how about a book that provides all of those things? The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge is a children’s novel which tells the story of newly orphaned Maria who moves from London with her governess to live with her cousin in a grand manor house in the countryside by the sea. I gave some thought as to which book to put forward for this list. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (Lion Children’s Books) We hope you take comfort and inspiration from our list below. Our regular contributors wanted to come together, therefore, and share some of the stories that have meant something to them in times of difficulty and hope stories that they believe will bring comfort, joy, humour, colour and emotion into the lives of our readers in the coming months during Covid-19 books that have the capacity to enlarge our inner worlds when our outer ones feel like they are closing in on us. Stories have the power to reach into our long-held hurts and fears and show us a way through. We at Lucy Writers believe that stories and the act of storytelling have the power to break boundaries, heal divisions and draw affinities between disparate groups of people who usually don’t see eye to eye. But one thing remains the same, irrespective of social isolation and distancing measures: our ability to tell and share stories. Here are our writers’ suggestions for reading during self-isolation.Īs every email, message and news report has declared in the last few weeks, we are living in ‘unprecedented times’ where life as we knew it is being radically reshaped before our very eyes and even small civil liberties we once took for granted, are now denied to us. In these difficult, uncertain times, we’re turning to books for consolation, comfort and creative inspiration.