What do you do when you’re lost?  In this magical world, you can try paddling round and round until the fairytale magnet needle points you in the right direction. Listen or look out for those mysterious ‘attractions’. 

Another lovely book by the playful, delightful, gentle children’s writer Elizabeth Goudge.  See the bestellar review of my favourite. 

“We must just paddle round and round and hope to be guided in the right direction.”

“What by?” asked the Dean a little gloomily.

“By whatever it is in fairy stories that causes the hero to turn the right way to a happy ending, like a needle towards a magnet,” said Grandfather.   “Those attractions are not always explainable, but they happen …” 

Source: Elizabeth Goudge, Henrietta’s House (Radstock: Girls Gone By Publishers, 2013 (1942)), p. 230

Photo credit: Free-Photos and StockSnap at pixabay.com