It was my mother-in-law who introduced me to the writing of Rumer Godden, way back in the 1970s. She had loved reading In This House of Brede, and she was keen to read more. Thankfully I was able to get them all from the library that I worked in at the time. Godden had a long writing career and wrote her last novel in 1997, the year before she died at the age of 90. You can read what I thought about that book here.

If you’re interested in finding out more about her you can read the article in this week’s Guardian review here. This article is about the novels which were set in India. Quite a few of her books were made into films, including In This House of Brede and Black Narcissus, both of which are about nuns, not a favourite topic of mine, which makes it all the more surprising that I really enjoyed the books, albeit nearly 40 years ago. Yes it must be that long ago, but I can hardly believe it!