Jan Karon fans, here is another cozy author for you: Elizabeth Goudge, author of The Little White Horse. This story is full of little doors, caves, tunnels, hidden passages, and piles of delicious food. When I described the book to my husband, he came up with this quote, entirely made up, but entirely representative of the spirit of the story. To be said in a British little-old-lady voice, "Oh, bother, I fear we may run out of cream horns!"
But let me not mislead you--lack of strife in this book, and in cozy books in general, doesn't make them any less enjoyable. Like a simple meal with mild flavors, it is quite satisfying.
Credit goes to two literary celebrities for steering me towards Elizabeth Goudge. The first is J. K. Rowling. George Beahm's book Muggles and Magic: J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Phenomenon relates that The Little White Horse is Rowling's "favorite book, which she credits as a big influence on the Harry Potter novels." I myself didn't see any particular parallels between Goudge and Rowling; just that The Little White Horse is imaginative and fantasy-oriented.
The second literary celebrity who pointed me to Goudge is Nancy Pearl, America's de facto librarian laureate. Book Lust lists The Little White Horse under the Cozies category as "a special treat." I fully agree.
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