Most Popular Books by Rumer Godden

When she wins a scholarship to a famous ballet school, Lottie, an orphan reared by the costume mistress for a London ballet company, is torn between her lifelong dream and her love for a puppy.

Una and her younger sister Hal have been abruptly summoned to live in New Delhi by their diplomat father Sir Edward Gwithiam. From the first meeting with their new tutor and companion, the beautiful Eurasian Alix Lamont, Una senses a hidden motive to their presence. But through the pain of the months to come, the poetry and logic of India do not leave Una untouched. And it begins with the feather, a promise of something genuine and precious . . . In The Peacock Spring Rumer Godden evokes the magic of an India she knows so well – and all the bitter sweetness of loyalty and love. And in the preface she explains how this perennially popular novel came to be written.

Account of two adolescent girls of an Anglo-Indian family in Bengal.

When Gem moves into The House Next Door, Nona and Belinda think she''s stuck up and vow to have nothing to do with her. But the beautiful Japanese doll in her window soon attracts their attention. They name her Little Plum because of the plum blossom decorating her clothes - but unlike Nona''s Japanese dolls, Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, Little Plum seems sad, unloved and uncared for. Will the three girls - and the three dolls - ever become friends? A beautiful illustrated cover edition of Little Plum, Rumer Godden''s classic story about family and friendship.

A tiny doll lives an adventurous life in a little boy''s pocket and as a member of a gang of boys.

As the youngest in the family, Elizabeth is slow and clumsy and always in trouble until she is taken in hand by the Fairy Doll that usually decorates the top of the Christmas tree.

Ghosts past, present, and future haunt an old London house in this masterful work of fiction from a New York Times Bestselling author. ''A genius for storytelling'' EVENING STANDARD ''One of our best and most original novelists'' PHILIP HENSHER ''Her craftsmanship is always sure . . . pure, delicate, and gently witty'' NEW YORK TIMES Grizel Dane, a bold young servicewoman in the US army, arrives at the London home of her great-uncle Sir Rollo Dane, seeking refuge from the chaos of wartime. Through the old man, Grizel learns the surprising history of the Dane family and Lark Ingoldsby. Orphaned by a train crash, Lark was taken in by the Danes as an adoptive daughter but soon found herself caught in a web of sibling rivalry, love and attrition. Selina Dane, racked with jealousy, sets out to destroy Lark''s dreams of love. When Grizel falls for Pax Masterson, a wounded airman, Rollo urges her to seize her chance for happiness, as he was not able to. A century of a family''s history remains alive and vibrant within these walls, the events that defined their lives unfolding over and over again. But that living history is not ending quite yet, for the war is bringing a stranger from America to Number 99 Wiltshire Place to leave her indelible mark on it. A different kind of ghost story, Rumer Godden''s poignant, stylistically brilliant A Fugue in Time is a story rich in wonder, imagination, and heart - a favourite for the many devoted fans of the bestselling author of Black Narcissus and In This House of Brede. A passionate story of romance and tragedy also inspired the classic film Enchantment starring David Niven and Teresa Wright.

This much-loved English novel from Rumer Godden is reminiscent of The Secret Garden, telling a fairy tale-esque story about neighborhood children and a mysterious garden in post-WWII London. An emergency meeting of the Mortimer Square Garden Committee has been convened to discuss a most alarming matter: someone has been digging in the garden and making off with buckets of dirt. Miss Angela Chesney is sure that a gang of boys from run-down Catford Street is to blame. But Angela’s sister, Olivia, isn’t so sure. Olivia has always wondered why the neighborhood children—the “sparrows” she sometimes watches from the window of her house—are kept out of the private garden. Don’t they have a right to enjoy the place, too? But neither Angela nor Olivia has any idea what sent the neighborhood waif Lovejoy Mason and her few friends in search of good, rich earth. Still less do they imagine where their investigation of the incident will lead them—to a struggling restaurant, a bombed-out church, and at the heart of it all, a hidden garden. “[An] extraordinarily gifted writer who manages to infuse her novels with a special magic of their own.”—Boston Herald

Grade level: 4, 5, 6, e, i.

A young English ballet dancer, Pippa Fane, journeys to Venice with a touring company and discovers love, evil, and the vast complexities of the adult world.

Keiko is not happy to be staying in her great grandfather''s house while her parents are away. But she discovers that there is far more to life in the countryside than she first thought: walnut sailboats, straw snowboots, great grandfather''s stories and the magic of New Year.

Modern love story, set in Cornwall and interwoven with the living past of five generations of the Quin family, and illustrative of life - as Chaucer says - as a "thinne subtil knittinge of thinges". A medieval book of hours plays a part in the plot.

The Stories In This Exquisite Collection Move Between The Timeless India Of Fable And The India Of Today. Condition Good

Three unforgettable novels from a New York Times–bestselling author—including Black Narcissus, which "bears comparison with A Passage to India" (Arthur Koestler). With Black Narcissus, her novel of five nuns in a remote Himalayan convent struggling against nature—both physical and human—Rumer Godden established her impeccable literary reputation. The New York Times wrote of her work: "Her craftsmanship is always sure; her understanding of character is compassionate and profound; her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty." Having spent her formative years in colonial India, she would continue to return to that setting for inspiration in several subsequent novels, each of them "beautifully and simply wrought by a woman of depth and sensitivity" ( Los Angeles Times). Black Narcissus: Led by Sister Clodagh, the youngest Mother Superior in the history of their order, the European Sisters of the Servants of Mary take up residence in an abandoned palace in the foothills of the Himalayas, where an Indian general once housed his harem. The sisters hope to establish a school and clinic to combat superstition, ignorance, and disease. But the isolation and mountain altitude, the ghosts and lurid history, and one young nun''s unhealthy obsession with their royal benefactor''s agent, Mr. Dean, threaten to undermine the best intentions of the purest hearts. Black Narcissus was made into an Academy Award–winning film starring Deborah Kerr and directed by Michael Powell. "A very remarkable novel." — The Observer Breakfast with the Nikolides: As the Nazi juggernaut rolls through occupied France, Louise Poole is forced to flee Paris with her two daughters and return to East Bengal and the husband she left. Despite Louise''s hatred of rural India, eleven-year-old Emily is intrigued by her exotic new home, left free to explore—and enjoy the hospitality of her glamorous neighbors, the Nikolides. But as the cracks in her parents'' marriage become more obvious, an act of thoughtless cruelty ultimately shatters the tenuous bonds of family, violently disrupting the lives of the Pooles and the community. "A fascinating book . . . It is absorbing and as original . . . as Black Narcissus." — Kirkus Reviews The River: The Second World War seems very far away for eleven-year-old Harriet, the daughter of a British businessman, and her home in Bengal, India, along the Ganges River—until the arrival of a handsome wounded soldier. Harriet is entranced by their new neighbor, Captain John, but unprepared for the rush of unfamiliar emotions he stirs up in her: longing, jealousy, and infatuation. Inspired by the author''s personal experiences growing up in India, The River is an evocative and bittersweet coming of age story. The River was made into a film directed by Jean Renoir. "So intense, so quietly demanding of attention, that at the time there will be nothing in your thoughts but a small girl in India, and the people and places that were her world." — Saturday Review

This haunting tale of shame and redemption is the story of Lise Fanshawe, prostitute and brothel manager, murderer and prisoner, and, finally, a Catholic nun in an order dedicated to serving people marginalized by society. An inspiring and convincing conversion story that shows God''s mercy.