Against the pomp and pageantry of turbulent seventeenth-century England, Elizabeth Goudge weaves the poignant tale of Lucy Walter, the proud and beautiful secret wife of Charles II.

Here is a subtle portrait of a deeply good and fascinating woman. From her early childhood in a castle by the sea in Wales-evoked as only Elizabeth Goudge can evoke the joys and pangs of childhood-to her tragic estrangement from the king and her death in Paris at the age of twenty-eight, Lucy Walter lived to the full a life of intense joy and equally intense drama. Miss Goudge portrays brilliantly a young love almost too ecstatic to bear. Equally moving is her characterization of Lucy-a spirited woman caught up in the cataclysmic wars and disruptive revolution of a tumultuous era. London at the time of the Great Fire, Paris when British royalty fled to the sanctuary of the Louvre, Brussels and The Hague-against this rich panoramic background a master storyteller traces the life and loves of an extraordinary woman.

The Child from the Sea is a superbly colorful and romantic historical novel alive with brilliant cameos and infused with a spiritual essence rare in our times.