On and off, all that hot French August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages.

The greengages had a pale-blue bloom, especially in the shade, but in the sun the flesh showed amber through the clear-green skin; if it were cracked the juice was doubly warm and sweet. Coming from the streets and small front gardens of Southstone, we had not been let loose in an orchard before; it was no wonder we ate too much.

I think that I must have read this book as a teenager and then half-forgotten it, because it felt oddly familiar. It’s possible, though, that its familiarity is more to due with the fact that it is so perfect an example of the “coming of age” novel.

When the narrator Cecil recollects the summer that she was 13, the symbolic keynote memory is of the experience of gorging on greengage plums. In case her reader misses the obvious, author Rumer Godden later makes the point explicit: the fruit is knowledge, sexual and worldly knowledge.

n  

He was aloof and unapproachable. How did I know then that he had these times? I do not know, but, as if the first greengage had been an Eden apple, I was suddenly older and wiser and did not try to speak to him.

n

This is an old-fashioned novel in the very best sense and Godden has such superb control over all of the elements of character, setting and plot. She’s always a graceful writer, but in this novel there is an elegant simplicity that makes this one of her most readable books.

She begins by removing her English family - mother, and five children - to a foreign setting, in this case a countryside hotel in Normandy. Then she removes the mother - who becomes dangerously ill with sepsis - and the children are set adrift. Suddenly there is no bedtime, no structure, no rules and no protective and loving eye. It’s frightening, but also exciting. When the oldest child, 16 year old Joss, also becomes ill, it creates a space for the narrator to claim the space that is usually held by the more glamorous and self-assured older sister.

A mysterious man named Eliot becomes the unofficial guardian - and sometimes friend and ally - to the children. He claims to be English, but also speaks perfect French and is involved with a Madame Zizi, the owner of the hotel. Eliot’s origins are ambiguous and exotic: his high cheekbones are attributed to a Chinese grandmother, and at another point he claims Genghis Khan as an ancestor. He doesn’t appear to work, but he claims to have done nearly every sort of job at one point or another. He disappears, often, to Paris; and early on, Cecil hears him tell Madame Zizi that the children will be useful “camouflage” for him.

Eliot occupies an ambiguous space in this bucolic setting, but then so do the children. Although they are guests in the hotel in a sense, they aren’t catered to, and they mix more with the hotel’s employees than the other guests. They are privy to its secrets and illusions. Cecil begins to smoke cigarettes and listen to the hotel’s gossip with Paul, a rough orphan who is the general dogsbody of the hotel. As her French improves, she begins to properly observe and tune into the adult world around her. There are sexual tensions all around her, and that is a significant but not the only awakening Cecil experiences.

13 is an ambiguous age, halfway between childhood and adulthood and really neither one or the other. Godden also establishes that the “Grey” family, for that is their surname, don’t particularly belong anywhere.

n  

We were odd, belonging and not belonging, and odd is an uncomfortable thing to be; we did not want to belong but were humiliated that we did not.

n

Although Rumer Godden’s story is, by her own acknowledgement, semi-autobiographical, the truly artful bit is the way she probes the ambiguous margins - between innocence and experience, between England and France - and reveals such a rich seam of mingled pleasure and pain.

A brand of heavy, poetic, sticky YA/children's literature you don't see as much of nowadays, though I recall reading a fair amount of it when I was younger. Is it because sex is treated as less mysterious now (where it isn't simply verboten)? All about ~blossoming~ and beauty and significance and stuff. It feels very high stakes and solemn even when the plot is slightly ridiculous!

Anyway, I really liked it. I think Peacock Spring and The Diddakoi are actually better and more interesting, but they also sucked harder in their handling of race etc., whereas this book is set in France so there are few such problems. (Apart from MAJOR eye-rolly bit near the beginning where they talk about Chinese eyes -- the kids are corrected by their well-travelled dad, but it's still a very clear and pointed way to exclude anyone with Chinese eyes from the assumed audience, even if it wasn't meant that way.)

The Greengage Summer is a coming-of-age novel based on a real summer in Rumer Godden’s life. Reading it was like traveling back to 1920s France and a time when childhood was slower and summer days were longer because there just wasn’t so much to do. Cecil, the second oldest Grey daughter, as the narrator was delightful. This was Rumer as a child and it was during this memorable trip to France she learned some things which would stay with her forever.

The five English children—Joss, Cecil, Hester, Willmouse (the only boy) and Vicky—were left stranded in a French hotel when their mother was bitten on the leg and the wound turned septicemic. Mrs. Grey was confined to hospital and the children were at the mercy of an unusual assortment of French-speaking hotel staff. Of the children, Cecil, spoke the most French and served as translator for the group.

There was one Englishman, Elliott, in the hotel but his identity, relationship to the proprietor, occupation and strange behavior raised more questions than they gave the children reasons to trust him and yet despite everything the Greys found themselves very much predisposed to Elliott.

I have yet to read anything by Rumer Godden which is less than 4 stars. Her writing is consistently first rate. The Greengage Summer is no exception. Charming. Bittersweet. Unforgettable. And best of all, it is based on an actual experience. In the intro to the Folio edition of the book, the actress, Jane Asher, who played Cecil/Hester in the movie, describes her adventures on set—an added bonus.

Most highly recommended.

One of my resolutions for this year is to start reading the unread books on my shelves before buying another!!! The Greengage Summer is part of a classics collection of beautifully designed Pan MacMillan books that I collect and I will admit I had never heard of this book or author.
What a pleasurable read this was!!! and perfect for this time of year, as I write this review, looking out on a grey, rainy rather bleak day. Instead, I transported to Les Oeillets, alongside Cecil, our narrator and her 4 siblings who take up residence in a faded but rather elegant hotel, whilst their mother recovers from an an unexpected illness. What follows, is a charming coming of age story of self discovery, love and deceit set over the course of the summer. The characterisation, of the five siblings and prose is particularly beautiful, which is something I always look for in a book, and I felt utterly absorbed in this family’s lives for two days. Great book to start 2023 with

The writing was very evocative and effective. The innocuous first chapter belies the slow horror and foreboding of the rest of the book. In some ways, I thought it was like To Kill a Mockingbird, especially the mode of narration. I could even classify The Greengage Summer as a tragedy.

ABSOLUMENT MERVEILEUS…….(Absolutely Wonderful > in French)…..
EMPLACEMENT PARFAIT…..(Perfect Pitch in French)

“The Greengage Summer”, first published in 1958, (my first time reading Rumer Godden)….reminded me of why I read fiction. It had everything. It was funny, sad, devastating and hopeful all at the same time.

…I learned new *French terms*.…..
[Essuie-toi’bec avec ta bavette] > wipe your mouth on your bib. …. some new *vocabulary*…
[Plimsolls: a light rubber, soled canvas shoe worn for sports]
and….[gouter: a disease in which detective metabolism of uric acid causes arthritis, especially in the smaller bones of the feet, deposition of chalkstones and episodes of acute pain > “We had learned about the French children’s gouter]….
and got a great taste of The Holel de Ville ….sixteenth century which contained the official apartments of the mayor in Paris. The hotel was located in a section called poets town.

…I enjoyed the lyrical descriptions…. (the language)….
…the settings…very atmospheric and lush….
…the smells… (cut grass, jasmine, summer itself)
…the vivid visuals…. > reflections of trees, houses, fishermen, children, kitchens, cats, colors and shadows along the river bank etc.
…the story adventures…. ( how about stuffing oneself on yummy smooth green plums in the greengage orchard?)
…the old fashioned feeling — reminding us in the power of delicious intelligent mesmerizing prose….
…the main and supporting characters were irresistibly showcased > especially the endearing five English children….(and the dynamics between them all) ….

The five Grey children were: Joss (the eldest/sixteen), Cecil (the narrator), and the three younger kids….Hester, Willmouse, and Vicky.

The children’s Mother wanted to take her children to France for a vacation to learn some history about the battlefields.
When a horsefly insect infected the mothers leg she became quite ill before leaving.
NOTE… memories came flooding back for me. Years ago when I was traveling, in India, I got some type of insect bite that grew into a golf size round ‘green-pus-ball’, on my lower leg…..it was nasty looking.
Running a fever and given nothing more than a sugar pill from an Indian doctor in a filthy village…. I needed help so I flew to England, where I spent the first night in the hospital in London with beginning stages of blood poisoning….
Then the next few weeks I was recuperating In Cambridge- in bed. A nurse came every few days to change bandages — and the English boyfriend’s mother (so happy to have a girl in the house with 4 sons), kept me feed….
Some of the best caretaking I ever had in my life. I could have died from that infected insect bite the London doctor told me…..
Ha….and aren’t we glad I lived so I could read this book - re-visit the memory and write this review….
I SWEAR I’M RETIRED….from writing reviews — but what the hell — sometimes I just can’t help myself. This really was a wonderful book and I recommend it to everybody!!!!

The storytelling is adventurous…..
Father was not around. He was a botanist ….. not part of the summer vacation plan….but when Mother needs to go to the hospital (for ‘her’ nasty infected leg bite)….soon after Joss gets sick— tummy problem and spends time in bed….So her thirteen year old Cecil becomes the sibling in charge….
Ha….kinda!
Nothing is straight forward when 5 kids end up living in a hotel with no parents with them.
Ha….not to fear —(maybe though) — the kids meet a handsome confident Englishman name Elliot who (sorta) becomes the temporary guardian. Mother asked Eliot to look after them….

Oh my — I see I’m doing a messy job tying to share about this book —-
There are several interesting characters — Eliot being one of them
There is a famous painter: Monsieur Marc Joubert….
Two dogs….Madame Corbet, Uncle William, Mademoiselle Zizi….etc.

Rumer Godden wrote exquisitely…. she really captured the innocence of children and summer - and as the reader we get quite invested with their predicaments, mysteriousness, jealousies, and drama …. They were basically on their own a little frighten in a strange land….

I’ll leave a few excerpts to offer up some flavors….

“Stepping in dew, my head, in the sun, I walked into the orchard and, before I knew what I had done, reached up to touch a greengage. It came off, warm and smooth into my hand. I looked quickly round, but no one came, no voice, scolded, and, after a moment, I bit into the ripe golden flesh. Then I had another, and another, until, replete with fruit and ecstasy, I went back to my post”.

“In Southstone our family Circle had been five children along with Mother. Our important had receded only on Father’s rare visits; Uncle William and his friends were uninteresting as the dead to us and children’s doings, problems, ideas, and Jose had filled all our horizons. At Oeillets we were insignificant as grass under trees, under the light and shadow of grown-ups”.


“Good God! An orphanage!” (Eliot exclaims when he sees all the children)
“To wake up for the first time in a new place, can be like another birth. I think that to me, it was perhaps more startling than to most people, because, for as long as I could remember, I had waked each morning in the same bedroom in Belmont Road, with its wallpaper faded to a gray blue pattern; to the same white curtains and blue linoleum, the brown rug worn in places, so that the white show through the brown; to the same white and enameled iron beds, paisley eider-downs, and the pictures that were framed print from all supplements to the ‘Illustrated London News’. Uncle, William and Mother had had those pictures when they were children, but Joss had taken them down and put up a Chinese painting instead; she took that with her to Willmouse’s room, and I brought the prince back. Cecil is sentimental, said Joss”.

“On and off, all that hot French August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages. Joss and I felt guilty; we were still at the age when we thought being greedy was a childish fault, and this gave our guilt, a tinge of hopelessness, because, up to then, we had believed that, as we grew older, our faults would disappear, and none of them did. Hester of course was quite unabashed; Will—though he was called Willmouse then—Willmouse and Vicky were too small to reach but the lowest branches, but they found fruit fallen in the grass; we were all strictly for bidden to climb the trees”


Note……the inspiration for this story comes straight from Rumer Godden’s own childhood.

5 very strong stars.

I love the way Rumer Godden writes. There's something mystical and enchanting about the book. The prose is lyrical and gets under your skin. Even though there's a hazy, dreamy, summer-holiday-feeling about the whole thing, and nothing seems to happen, it's clear that things *are* happening, on the edges, where your vision blurs. But if you pay attention and don't let yourself be swept away by the emotion and the lazy-river-flow of the story, you can watch the drama build in the background.

How do I love this novel? Let me count the ways.....You know how you get a taste in your mouth for a certain kind of book, just as you might for a certain kind of fruit? I was hankering after a good, humane, warm, smart and funny story, one that was not self-conscious or tortured, one I could sit by the pool and linger over. That was when Rumer Godden's name drifted into my mind--I had loved her work as a teenager, so I chose this one. And it delivered. Her writing is pared down, precise and low key, with keen but not overly labored observations on human nature. She gets inside the minds of children like no one else except Elizabeth Bowen. Set in mid-twentieth century France, a mother takes her five children on what she plans to be a tour of the battle-fields of France, to attempt to shake them out of their "selfishness." Instead she gets sick, and the children are left to the mercy of a flighty hotel owner and her mysterious but generous guest. Godden has a pitch perfect ear for the efforts of children to understand grown-ups, and the delightful 13 year old narrator, Cecil's awkwardness and self-doubt, even as she knows much more than she wishes to.

Ich weiß gar nicht was ich von dem Buch erwartet habe, ich hab es einfach angefangen zu lesen, aber es war so spannend! Vorallem die letzten 50 Seiten!
So interessant!

I read this book because this is a popular book rated at 4 or 5 stars by many of my most respected GR friends. But these GR friends are all female and I had a concern that this story would not be appealing to a male or non-YA reader. After finishing the book, I think that, while a young woman may better relate to the story, it was a broadly interesting tale that's appropriate for the elder male reader.
At the beginning, the story reminded me a bit of I Capture the Castle with two sisters, the more attractive and worldly elder sister,16-year-old Joss, and her more introspective younger 13-year-old sister Cecil, who serves as narrator. The story concerns their family’s experience during a summer at a small hotel in the French champagne country of the Marne. The setting was reminiscent of my recent Hotel du Lac read. However, this book's story is not that similar to the story in either of these other books.
The story starts slowly, gently presenting and describing the setting and characters who will play parts in the upcoming dramatic events. For most of the book, I found the story pleasant but not engaging. However, when the book morphed into an unexpectedly dramatic story, it became an engrossing page turner.
I thought the writing style was capable and clear, but the story turned out to be better and more interesting than average and quite different from my expectations. I also did enjoy how Godden portrayed the perspective of the 13-year-old Cecil. It felt real and relatable. A 4 star read.

What a perfectly delightful book! My thanks to Sara, Megan and Diane Barnes whose rave reviews brought me to this book and author.

Imagine a hot August in France. Your mother has decided to take you there to see battlefields, so you could learn to be less selfish. But upon arrival, your mother is hospitalized with a serious infection and you and your 4 siblings are alone at the hotel. This story is semi- autobiographical as per the author’s note at the start of the book.

The five Grey children were such a pleasure, all unique and well captured by the author. Our narrator is Cecil, 13 years old. Her older sister, Joss, is 16 years old and an eye catching beauty. Hester is 10 and very observant. Then we have the Littles (as they are referred to)- Willmouse, 8 years old and Vicky, 5 years old. They all get involved in the goings on of the hotel. Eliot, the lone Englishman, has promised their mother that he will keep an eye on them.

This book had me chuckling at times- kids say the darnedest things, don’t they?

Summer in the Champagne country of the Marne is filled with mostly lazy days for the kids. There is an underlying mystery and when that comes to the light, the kids rise to the challenge.

“Children are everywhere, like insects. They can know anything.”

How right Inspector Cailleux is!

This is a coming of age story. As the kids become more involved with adults ,the ways of adults are opened up to them.
“I know now it is children who accept life; grown people cover it up and pretend it is different with drinks.”

We are currently going through a heat wave where I live. What perfect timing for this book. I love knowing that this is only the first of the many books by Rumer Godden that I will be reading!

Published: 1958

‘The Greengage summer like other Rumer Godden novels I have read is wonderfully evocotive of place. There is a constant feeling of a hot and hazy summer, of being in a place that is both exciting and strange, where one is never sure who is who, and what is what. The story of the 5 siblings (Joss 16, Cecil 13, Hester 10 Willmouse 7 and vicky 4) told by Cecil of a summer spent in a rural French hotel. Their mother is ill in a local hospital and so they come under the "care" of Eliot a mysterious Englishman at the hotel, whom they are all strangely drawn to. The novel is so very atmospheric I could almost taste the greenages - and I don't how they taste - and feel the sun burn my skin. The children (although Joss is often more adult than child) make an enemy in the vampish Mademoiselle Zizi, and meet Paul who works at the hotel and is saving to buy a lorry. As the summer continues, Eliot's behaviour and changing moods causes some unease. The preface - written by Rumer Godden explains how this novel came to be written and in a sense the story behind it, a true story and one that makes fascinating reading.