Why a Booktrail?
1800s: An epic journey from Guernsey to New Zealand: also published as Green Dolphin Country
Green Dolphin Street
What you need to know before your trail
Earthquakes, shipwreck, encounters between New Zealand settlers and the indigenous Maori people – these are just some of the tales which help to describe life in 19th century New Zealand
Marianne LePatourel meets William Ozanne in the 1830s on an island in the English Channel, but her sister Marguerite falls in love with him too. And so begins this sweeping, dramatic adventure for the women in the story.
William’s naval career is cut short, and writes to ask for Marguerite’s hand in marriage ― but somehow puts the wrong name in his letter. It is Marianne who arrives aboard the ship The Green Dolphin, and William decides not to reveal his mistake
And so begins the next, and biggest adventure of them all.
Locations
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The book is fiction but the author states in the note that it is based on fact. “That a man who had emigrated to the New World should after the lapse of years write home for a bride, and then get the wrong one because he had confused her hame with that of her sister, may seem to the reader highly improbable; yet it happened. And in real life also the man held his tongue about his mistake and made a good job of his marriage.”
Guernsey
The Convent of Notre Dame de Castel is also fictional but it it true that monks from Mont St Michel crossed the sea in their frail boats and founded a hermitage on the island of Guernsey.
Le Cruex des Faies exists today and the footprints of the fairy Abbesses are still to be found imprinted on the rock. Marie – Tape Trout is still said to guide fisherman home
Elizabeth Goudge actually never traveled to New Zealand and there is an apology for readers there for her mistakes she must have made in writing this novel.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Green Dolphin Street
Destination: New Zealand, Guernsey Author/Guide: Elizabeth Goudge Departure Time: 1800s
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