The thousands of readers of A City of Bells were charmed by Miss Goudge's two delightful creations—the children, Henrietta and Hugh Anthony; and they shared the author's feeling for the beauty of the old cathedral town. Such readers will find full measure in this new and heart-warming story, the first full-length, modern novel Miss Goudge has written since A of City of Bells.

The Bird in the Tree has three marvelous youngsters and two dogs who romp through its pages and bring color and life to Damerosehay, the eighteenth-century home of the Eliots, tucked away between the marshes and the sea on a forgotten stretch of the Hampshire coast. The action of the novel all takes place during the fall of 1938, but its sources are hidden in the past. There is the obscure history of Damerosehay, which gradually unfolds, and the strange fascination the lovely old house possess for all who visit it. There is Grandmother Lucilla Eliot, whose personality has merged so completely with that of Damerosehay during the passage of the years; and there is her maid, Ellen, whose sixty-odd years of service have made her as much an Eliot as Grandmother herself.

Against this background, Miss Goudge presents a modern love story which goes to the very heart of human emotion. Young David Eliot and his Nadine love Damerosehay as they love each other, but their lives are not entirely their own. Damerosehay, Lucilla, the children, and even the Little Village on the shore have claims stronger than they at first realize, and each plays a part in showing David and Nadine the way to happiness.

From the dust jacket