Ask the Author: Christine Rawlins
Answered Questions (8)
Christine Rawlins
Hello Katrina,
How lovely to receive your email and to know that you are reading Beyond the Snow and enjoying it. Better still, that you are discovering Elizabeth Goudge and feeling the benefit of her work in your own life. Her books have helped me so much over the years.
As to other authors, I would just say that I think there is no-one else quite like EG, with her unique mix of human frailty and powerful spirituality, poetry and beauty, sadness and happy endings. But I wonder if you have come across Rosamunde Pilcher? I've really enjoyed her books over the years and have read the best of them - like The Shell Seekers - more than once. Winter Solstice is one of my favourites.
Perhaps you'd also like Joanna Trollope - most of her books are about relationships and the complications of modern life. One aspect of EG that's so helpful to her readers is the way she creates characters who are struggling to cope with life, and two fairly recent books that come to mind are Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (such a bestseller you've probably come across it already) and Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland. Each about a woman who has had trauma in childhood, but despite this darker background they are both positive and ultimately uplifting.
The American best-selling author Anne Tyler also writes well about everyday life and people.
As I say, I don't think anyone else has ever captured the "magic" of EG but I hope you might find something to enjoy in the above.
Happy reading!
With best wishes, Christine
How lovely to receive your email and to know that you are reading Beyond the Snow and enjoying it. Better still, that you are discovering Elizabeth Goudge and feeling the benefit of her work in your own life. Her books have helped me so much over the years.
As to other authors, I would just say that I think there is no-one else quite like EG, with her unique mix of human frailty and powerful spirituality, poetry and beauty, sadness and happy endings. But I wonder if you have come across Rosamunde Pilcher? I've really enjoyed her books over the years and have read the best of them - like The Shell Seekers - more than once. Winter Solstice is one of my favourites.
Perhaps you'd also like Joanna Trollope - most of her books are about relationships and the complications of modern life. One aspect of EG that's so helpful to her readers is the way she creates characters who are struggling to cope with life, and two fairly recent books that come to mind are Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (such a bestseller you've probably come across it already) and Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland. Each about a woman who has had trauma in childhood, but despite this darker background they are both positive and ultimately uplifting.
The American best-selling author Anne Tyler also writes well about everyday life and people.
As I say, I don't think anyone else has ever captured the "magic" of EG but I hope you might find something to enjoy in the above.
Happy reading!
With best wishes, Christine
Christine Rawlins
Hi Karen,
This was Father Louis Bouyer, who was himself a prolific author - you'll find many of his books listed on Goodreads.
Best wishes, Christine
This was Father Louis Bouyer, who was himself a prolific author - you'll find many of his books listed on Goodreads.
Best wishes, Christine
Christine Rawlins
Mulling over ideas! and awaiting inspiration on how to tackle them. Writing my journal every day, as I have done for years.
Christine Rawlins
Same as the advice that helped me - simply do it. Set aside a regular time when you sit down with whatever medium suits you best - paper and pen, laptop, verbal dictation - and just get some words down, just WRITE! And read, read, read - it's the only way to learn how to use words effectively.
Christine Rawlins
The sheer joy of finding the right words to express what you want to say. And at the end of it all, seeing the book in print - holding it in your hands, and knowing that after all that struggle and aspiration, you did it!
Christine Rawlins
You just don't have to let it stop you. Keep on sitting down to write. And even if the book itself stays blocked, keep on using words - keep a journal, or write a paragraph about something you've experienced, or a description of someone you know.
Christine Rawlins
Elizabeth Goudge and her faith have been my inspiration thus far.
Christine Rawlins
From reading Elizabeth Goudge's "The Joy of the Snow" and wanting to understand what lay, unsaid, between the lines.
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