I thought of another venerable lady of literature to invite to tea: Elisabeth Elliot. She’s about 80 years old sometime this year (I couldn’t find an exact birthdate), and she lives in South Carolina with her third husband, Lars Gren. In addition to many, many works of nonfiction devotional and wisdom literature, she’s also the author of one of my favorite novels, a book which deserves more attention than it’s ever received, No Graven Image.
I’m trying to decide whether to invite all five ladies to tea at the same time. The interaction would be fascinating, but of course, one doesn’t ever know if a particular group of people will “gel” so to speak. All of the ladies I’ve mentioned are strong and articulate personalities, so they might compete for attention.

Maybe it would be better to invite Charlotte Zolotow and Tasha Tudor for tea one day and then invite Madeleine L’Engle and P.D. James another day. Then Elisabeth Elliot and her husband could come over as soon as I recovered from the first two events. Still, the idea of having all those ladies in the same room at the same time is almost irresistible. And maybe they’d distract one another so that no one would notice my below-average housekeeping skills.

No, they’d all notice, but they’d be tactful enough not to mention it. We could have tea and muffins and sit and talk of detective stories and children’s literature and making a home and living a Christian life. I’ve almost talked myself into believing that my imaginary tea party could happen.

Oh, as long as we’re imagining, all of you who would enjoy such a tea party are invited, too.