Rumer Godden
This is the official web site of the Rumer Godden Literary Trust

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Rumer Godden

2007 is Rumer Godden's Centenary Year and please watch the press for new editions of the books.

Rumer Godden is one of the foremost English language authors of the 20th century, writing novels, biographies, children’s books and poetry. She was born at Eastbourne, England on 10th December 1907 and died in Dumfriesshire, Scotland on November 8th 1998. Her last book, “Cromartie versus The God Shiva Acting through the Government of India” was published by Macmillan in November 1997. Her literary life began with the publishing of some poems in the illustrated London News in 1929. Her first novel, Chinese Puzzle, was published in 1936.

Rumer Godden wrote some 60 works during her life, drawing on her experiences of life in India and Britain. There were times of hardship, happiness and sadness, relative poverty and wealth and success. She was awarded the OBE in 1993.

Rumer Godden, photographed at her some in 1990Rumer Godden had many interests but her greatest were for dancing (she ran a mixed race dance school in Calcutta in the mid 1930s), for Pekinese dogs which she kept for most of her life and for children (she ran junior poetry workshops which kept her in touch with the young) Rumer Godden also had an inquiring religious side to her and she studied great religions of the world. One of her favourite axioms came from an Indian proverb that says

"everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person".

She quoted this in her autobiography A House with Four Rooms.

For most of Rumer Godden's life her publishing affairs were in the hands of CURTIS BROWN of London and New York, and they continue to be so for the Literary Trust. Since her death her general literary matters are managed by her daughter, a trustee of the Rumer Godden Literary Trust.

Contacts: Rumer Godden Literary Trust - Email: ardnacloich@tiscali.co.uk - Fax: +44 (0) 1848 200388
Curtis Brown - London Telephone No.: +(44) (0)20 7396 6600 - Email: cb@curtisbrown.co.uk
Curtis Brown - New York + (01) (212) 5980917

Her authorised biography has been written by Anne Chisholm - Rumer Godden, A Story Tellers Life. (1997), published by Macmillan, London.