tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post2455498376259640358..comments2024-03-27T06:42:26.250-07:00Comments on Seven Miles of Steel Thistles: Magical RoomsKatherine Langrishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-17718974847353401182010-10-27T15:29:31.357-07:002010-10-27T15:29:31.357-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-74173060082439489382010-07-05T11:15:31.229-07:002010-07-05T11:15:31.229-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Lots in Costa Ricahttp://www.lots-in-costarica.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-65092511155835578512010-02-07T10:46:24.251-08:002010-02-07T10:46:24.251-08:00I think you're quite right, Lily, about the Se...I think you're quite right, Lily, about the Secret Garden being a sort of outdoor room. Hope you can find Linnets and Valerians!<br /><br />Adele, how lovely - we must have a Goudge talk some time!Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-61293003378870449922010-02-07T10:18:54.587-08:002010-02-07T10:18:54.587-08:00Wow, an Elizabeth Goudge book I've never come ...Wow, an Elizabeth Goudge book I've never come across! Must look out for Linnets and Valerians...<br /><br />I guess the garden in The Secret Garden acts as a kind of room too, that the children make their own even though it is full of others' memories and events.<br /><br />I can't really think of many rooms in fairy tales, apart from the ones you mention. Is it because most fairy tales are about leaving behind your old room (your parents, your childhood) and finding your place in the world as an adult? And the moment when the heroes and heroines find that new room of their own is time for 'and they all lived happily ever after'.lilyhttp://www.lilyhyde.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-52294443466227758452010-02-07T04:42:13.360-08:002010-02-07T04:42:13.360-08:00I love this post too...coming to it a bit late. Go...I love this post too...coming to it a bit late. Gosh, how I loved the Elizabeth Goudge books as a child. Must go back and read them again. And yes, rooms are fantastic. I hardly ever move out of them in my fiction, I find. Very few outdoor scenes in my work....but tons of ROOMS. What does that say about me, I wonder.adelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15826710558292792068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-74144084200057671332010-02-06T02:27:32.240-08:002010-02-06T02:27:32.240-08:00Maggie - it sounds as good as Heidi's hayloft....Maggie - it sounds as good as Heidi's hayloft...!<br /><br />Kate,that's a such an interesting insight into a writer's 'background mindset'. You wouldn't normally think of comparing 'Sabriel'and 'The Little White Horse', yet there are these subtle resonances. We really are what we read, and it comes out in all sorts of ways.Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-15023579529362856362010-02-05T21:04:36.318-08:002010-02-05T21:04:36.318-08:00Hi Katherine
It was not often hot when and where I...Hi Katherine<br />It was not often hot when and where I grew up-maybe only a couple weeks out of the year. And there were windows on both sides of the bed, so there was always a breeze to be had on all but the hottest nights.Maggiehttp://mockingbirdsatmidnight.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-13326711196229802252010-02-05T15:46:21.601-08:002010-02-05T15:46:21.601-08:00I love this post, Katherine! You may be interested...I love this post, Katherine! You may be interested to know that when Sabriel was published, Garth and I talked about Sabriel's room and how we both remembered vividly the room in The Little White Horse, and how often the houses and gardens in our books are a way of recreating the magical houses we loved in Elizabeth Goudge's work and also in writers like Lucy Boston and Philippa Pierce. And I'm so pleased you included 'A Little Princess' - as I was reading the post I was thinking about that cold attic room transformed,and thinking I'd remind you of it - and then scrolled down, and there it was!Kate Forsythhttp://www.kateforsyth.com.aunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-13125636540371079482010-02-05T03:29:57.437-08:002010-02-05T03:29:57.437-08:00Thankyou Maggie - yours too sounds like a magical ...Thankyou Maggie - yours too sounds like a magical space. (But wasn't it hot in summer?)Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-3925507564592303192010-02-04T20:28:36.188-08:002010-02-04T20:28:36.188-08:00Thank you. What a beautiful post. I remember those...Thank you. What a beautiful post. I remember those books. And it made me remember my own childhood room, a strange little room in the top of a double-decker trailer, only tall enough for a child to stand, and just big enough for a double mattress and a book shelf along one wall. You're totally correct; a child's room is a place of safety and dreams.Maggiehttp://mockingbirdsatmidnight.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-65096556638172802712010-02-04T14:55:23.836-08:002010-02-04T14:55:23.836-08:00A delight, Katherine, stirs up memories of magical...A delight, Katherine, stirs up memories of magical childhood stories and places. Thank you!Linda Strachanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04354324158228109351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-73090633428410653222010-02-04T14:06:23.371-08:002010-02-04T14:06:23.371-08:00Thanks for the comments. Jo, your box-room does s...Thanks for the comments. Jo, your box-room does sound a magical place in very mcuh the same way as many of these - a place of history and memories as well as refuge. Max in the Wild Things - of course! (And my husband just passed by and muttered, 'Bastien Balthazar's school attic in The Neverending Story'...) <br />Claire, so nice to meet a fellow fan of these great books!<br />Gwenda, thank you so much for the comment and link!<br />Karen, I used to eat Cadbury's Flakes and read the Pocomoto books by Rex Dixon (a post for another time there.)Katherine Langrishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12529700103932422873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-23410694325206158572010-02-04T13:43:03.662-08:002010-02-04T13:43:03.662-08:00Another gorgeous and thought-provoking post. I rem...Another gorgeous and thought-provoking post. I remember how important my bedroom was to me as a child, the place where so much reading took place. I would pull the blanket chest away from the wall and lie on the carpet next to the radiator with chocolate stolen from the kitchen, reading Mary Poppins. Heaven!karen ballhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05595346107578248030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-58597055202982967912010-02-04T10:39:20.288-08:002010-02-04T10:39:20.288-08:00You've just mentioned so many of my favourite ...You've just mentioned so many of my favourite books in one post! There's definitely something about that desire for a room of my own which has never left me. I think I loved rooms like Maria's so much, because in reading the story it became my room to escape to too. Lovely post!Claire Deanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12466995265143493376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-48234187637159521002010-02-04T09:34:56.738-08:002010-02-04T09:34:56.738-08:00Fabulous post!Fabulous post!gwendahttp://gwendabond.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-32211665217070907242010-02-04T08:19:05.541-08:002010-02-04T08:19:05.541-08:00And of course there's Max's room where the...And of course there's Max's room where the forest grew and an ocean tumbled by with a boat to take him Where The Wild Things Are... but he can come back and his supper will still be hot. That's one of my favourite rooms.<br /><br />Lovely post, Kath!Gillian Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775401199564200537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4950999049789394042.post-78821725420922231892010-02-04T04:56:19.126-08:002010-02-04T04:56:19.126-08:00I shared a bedroom with a younger sister- fortunat...I shared a bedroom with a younger sister- fortunately we got along, but we also had the attic, and more importantly the box-room, a dusty narrow room with one window looking over the back garden, and a door, and a collection of boxes and trunks my mother had brought with her from England to Canada. They were filled with photographs and old clothing that had belonged to her grandmother and since we didn't know the british side of the family, we were endlessly fascinated with these portraits of stiff looking old people with their umbrellas.<br />The box-room made frequent appearances in my dreams. It still does- as a magical place. A cross between Narnia's wardrobe and Sara Crewe's transformed garret. I thought of it as a portal to strange and exciting worlds. Even now my memory of what it was in reality is blurred (and transformed) by my childish imagination.Jo Treggiarihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02417288480274268189noreply@blogger.com