Phill usually send me a book, often one from the past, this one was my
old friend Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White horse. Perfect for Boxing Day
read. Waiting to skype him yesterday I opened it and immediately remembered I'd read it many years ago. Why, well it was the description of the young heroine Maria:
"...she was thirteen years old and was considered plain, with her queer
silvery-grey eyes that were so disconcertingly penetrating, her straight reddish hair and thin pale face with it's distressing freckles. Yet her little figure, small as that of a fairy's child, with a backbone as straight as a poker, was very dignified, and she had exquisitely tiny feet, of which she was inordinately proud..."
Phill came on just as I was laughing at the most perfect description of
me at thirteen. Laughing, I read it out to him and the wicked, naughty young
Phill stared back and me and we were both thirteen again and that perfect
description of me as a child, which was of course why he choose it.
I have to admit I am still inordinately proud of my little feet and I
am here sat with a back as straight as a poker and my eyes are still
silvery-grey and apparently, my sister-in-law says, they
can be quite terrifyingly, disconcertingly penetrating....
And later in the book there is a wolf...I had a wolf too, he was imaginary of course, but very comforting.
How we both laughed and remembered our childhood adventures in any wild
country we could walk, me always carrying the backpack with our lemonade, salmon sandwiches and apples. How perfectly Enid Blyton and what a perfect childhood it was...joy.
It was written before I was born, but I'd love to meet the person, if
they exist, whom the description of Maria was based on, for we have to be related...
old friend Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White horse. Perfect for Boxing Day
read. Waiting to skype him yesterday I opened it and immediately remembered I'd read it many years ago. Why, well it was the description of the young heroine Maria:
"...she was thirteen years old and was considered plain, with her queer
silvery-grey eyes that were so disconcertingly penetrating, her straight reddish hair and thin pale face with it's distressing freckles. Yet her little figure, small as that of a fairy's child, with a backbone as straight as a poker, was very dignified, and she had exquisitely tiny feet, of which she was inordinately proud..."
Phill came on just as I was laughing at the most perfect description of
me at thirteen. Laughing, I read it out to him and the wicked, naughty young
Phill stared back and me and we were both thirteen again and that perfect
description of me as a child, which was of course why he choose it.
I have to admit I am still inordinately proud of my little feet and I
am here sat with a back as straight as a poker and my eyes are still
silvery-grey and apparently, my sister-in-law says, they
can be quite terrifyingly, disconcertingly penetrating....
And later in the book there is a wolf...I had a wolf too, he was imaginary of course, but very comforting.
How we both laughed and remembered our childhood adventures in any wild
country we could walk, me always carrying the backpack with our lemonade, salmon sandwiches and apples. How perfectly Enid Blyton and what a perfect childhood it was...joy.
It was written before I was born, but I'd love to meet the person, if
they exist, whom the description of Maria was based on, for we have to be related...