Godden, (Margaret) Rumer

(British, 1907–98)

Godden was a prolific writer of both adult and children's fiction; many of her novels reflect her time in India. She received the OBE in 1993. Godden came to wider public attention with Black Narcissus (1939), which was successfully filmed. Sister Clodagh takes a party of nuns to the harsh foothills of the Himalayas at Mopu to set up a new convent. In this psychologically taut novel, the privations of the beautiful but bleak landscape seem to force the women to struggle with their forgotten desires and pasts. In This House of Brede (1969) Godden returns to the theme of monastic life. The crises in the community throw up issues of leadership, envy, and loss for the ex-civil servant heroine. The River (1946) and The Greengage Summer (1958) examine the experiences of young girls on the cusp of womanhood, and the changes and loss that involves.

R. K. Narayan, Olivia Manning  TO