2025/030: The Runaways — Elizabeth Goudge

2025/030: The Runaways — Elizabeth Goudge

They had the charming surname of Linnet, and it was a pity it did not suit them. [p. 19]

First published in 1964 as Linnets and Valerians, those being the surnames of two entwined families: reissued as the winner of Hesperus Press's 'Uncover a Children's Classic Competition'. Four children, sent to stay with their autocratic grandmother while their father is soldiering in Egypt, flee her draconian rules. They find an unattended pony and trap outside a pub, plunder the bags of shopping therein, and climb in -- only to find that the pony knows its way home.( Read more... )