Rumer Godden: A Storyteller's Life

The first volume (of two) of Rumer Godden’s autobiography ends in 1945, with her return to England; it takes Anne Chisholm 9 of 15 chapters to get that far, a good indication that for Chisholm, Godden’s life in India is the important part of the story. Her novels A Fugue in Time and China Court, both set in England, receive about a sentence each, while any books set in India are described in greater detail, and Chisholm devotes a whole chapter to a firsthand account of Godden’s 1994 visit to India to make a BBC documentary. Perhaps because Godden wrote for both children and adults, this biography’s opening suggests that Chisholm had a dual audience in mind, but the later accounts of failed marriages and multiple house moves would not be very interesting to young readers. I’ll look for a biography that pays more attention to the writing.

...Masterpiece, sends one into a deep vortex where you think deeply about yourself... and what's real to you and what's not... Also gives you an opportunity to cope with whatever "hazardous" event that has ever happened to you... pick yourself and move forward is the main message of this book.

19 January 2011 -- enjoyed this biography immensely.

Biographies are very hard to make readable. This one simply did it. I will look for more by Ms. Chisholm; but in particular, her rendering of Ms. Godden made the excellence of Godden's prose all the better for me.

Prior to this book I only knew of Rumer Godden as the author of a couple of children’s books. Her life turned out to be much more complex than I was expecting

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A happy childhood is always a paradise lost. The English children of the Indian Empire knew a special paradise, and most of them never forgot it and always missed it. Over and over again in the memories of people who grew up in India the same longings and vivid recollections recur: they remember the warmth, the sun, the colours, the light, the space, the sound; above all, perhaps, the smell of India.

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Although Rumer Godden spent much of her life in England, many readers associate her with India - and the books she wrote which were inspired by her experiences there. (My own Godden bibliography has been heavily weighted towards the Indian books: The Lady and the Unicorn, Black Narcissus, The River and the memoir Two Under the Indian Sun.) I read this biography immediately after finishing Rumer and Jon Godden's memoir of their childhood in Narayanganj (then British India, now Bangladesh), and as the biographer borrowed heavily from that book, this book didn't get off to a particularly promising start for me. However, there was far more to this complicated woman's life than those childhood experiences, and soon enough I found myself in fresh and uncharted territory.

Although it's not the most exhaustive of biographies, Chisholm does a solid job of covering the complicated time-line of Godden's life, and fitting in the books as well - but without giving too much of their plots away. India provides a book-end for Godden's life, and a personal connection for the biographer, as very late in Godden's life, Anne Chisholm accompanies her and a BBC film crew to the places in India which had impacted Godden's childhood and young married years.

Godden had a terrific work ethic, and it was her habit and ritual to begin a new book every New Year's Eve. She wrote obsessively as a child, and published her first novel Chinese Puzzle when she was only 28. One of the novels she is best known for, Black Narcissus, was only her third novel, but after this first taste of writing fame - it was later adapted into both a stage play and film - she not only became a professional writer, but also the main financial support of both of her marriages. Although she had two daughters by her first husband, and took care of other family children during the years - especially during World War II, which she spent in India - she was always first and foremost a writer. Nevertheless, she didn't spend her life locked away in a study. She had a life full of a great many things and experiences.

Chisholm takes care to point out that Godden was prone to dramatising her own life - to shaping it into a story, and thus losing or blurring the factual aspects of what had happened. Throughout the book, she relies on other a variety of other testimonies - and not just Godden's point of view. I felt this book benefitted from the author's first-hand knowledge of her subject, without being slavish to it. Chisholm has fondness and respect for Godden, but she maintains distance, too.

I love the smaller or more personal details, and these are a few that I will remember from this biography. Rumer Godden loved pugs, Famous Grouse whisky, and furnishing houses. Despite the love of houses, (or perhaps because of it), she moved many times over the years. She lived in Lamb House, in Rye, a house associated with many writers - including Henry James. She converted to Catholicism later in life and wrote several books about nuns and the spiritual life. She was a hardy traveller. She wrote many children's books, and more than a dozen nonfiction books as well. She lived in Jean Renoir's house in California when they were working together on a screenplay for her novel The River.

Godden wrote three memoirs about her own life, and I intend on reading all of them. Perhaps this biography will seem more like an outline in comparison, but it's certainly a good jumping-off point for a British writer whose writing definitely deserves a revival.

I read Rumer Godden's books, mostly about dolls, as a child, but wasn't familiar with her as a person or author of adult literature. A friend gave me a copy of Prayers from the Ark, and I was intrigued enough by this encounter of Rumer with Carmen Bemos de Gasztold, that I wanted to find out more. There isn't much about that encounter, but I enjoyed learning about Rumer's life, especially in India. I have always wanted to rent a houseboat in Kashmir, so that part of the book was especially enthralling. Overall, this book gave me a first look at this interesting author, and I would like to learn more about her, and maybe even read some of her adult literature. For now, I'm settling into re-reading The Doll's House...

I have enjoyed a number of Rumer Godden's books and read the first volume of her autobiography a few years ago, so this caught my attention when I spotted a used copy. I thought Anne Chisholm did a pretty good job of telling Rumer Godden's life story and giving me a feel for her character. She had access to Rumer herself, her friends and family, and family papers, so the biography comes across as quite authoritative. Rumer's life was so bound up with India that in some ways the book is as much about the country as the person. I find the history of British India fascinating, so it is no surprise that I enjoyed the read. I was disappointed, though, in the treatment of Rumer's conversion to Catholicism. I wanted to know about her spiritual journey and the impact of faith on her character and writing, but the biography glossed over this. Her conversion was mentioned but never really explained.