Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge

They both made their money from timber, both took part in the wars between the indigenous people and the settlers and both had a love-hate relationship with the Maoris.

With the benefit of the internet, I was able to find out that the character of Tai Harura is based on that of Maning himself. Maning entitled “ Old New Zealand.” It was a chronicle of the author’s experiences in the New Zealand of the late 1800s and his relationship with the Maoris. It caused Elizabeth all sorts of problems as people wanted to visit her and the tax man became interested in her earnings for the first time.Įlizabeth always researched her work meticulously and for this epic, she found a work by F.E. It’s a blockbuster of a book and was made into a film in the 1940’s. Green Dolphin Country is arguably one of the most famous adult novels that Elizabeth wrote. “Perhaps, like the Egyptians of old, we subconsciously thought that what was close to our bodies in death would accompany our spirits as they entered a new life” Her Mother’s jewelry box and Elizabeth’s manuscript of Green Dolphin Country was with them. Her Mother and Elizabeth shared a bed while this was taking place, determined to be together should the worse occur. As the planes returned there was always the worry that they would jettison their bombs over their village. Elizabeth and her Mother were living at that time in Marldon, a small village on the flight path to Plymouth, and endured many nights of sleepless listening as the German planes roared overhead on their way to bomb Plymouth. It took her a long time to write, a project that she took up and laid aside during the early days of the Second World War. His story is William’s in most particulars.Įlizabeth herself said she “made it New Zealand because my ignorance of Australia was, even more, total than my ignorance of New Zealand.” The book is based on the life experiences of Elizbeth’s Great Uncle William, who left the island to join the British Navy, went on shore leave at an eastern port, missed his ship after “getting into a scrape” and found a ship bound for Australia. And in real life also the man held his tongue about his mistake and made a good job of his marriage.”

That a man who had emigrated to the New World should after a lapse of years write home for a bride, and then get the wrong one because he had confused her name with that of her sister, may seem to the reader highly improbable yet it happened. “Though this book is fiction, and the characters, not portraits, it is based on fact.

Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge