Emma, thanks for the reply. One of the great things about Rumer Godden's books imo, esp. the ones she wrote for the YA age is that she made them thrilling, adult, but managed to leave out the worst aspects of adult life, or hid it in such a way that only adult readers would catch on. Her stories were *decent* and respectful of her reading audience, rather than sordid. Her autobiographies were certainly candid, weren't they?

The first book, by the way, that I recall choosing for myself (and I still have it) is Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. I got it at a school book fair 42 years ago, eek!

Another fan,
Amy

posted by SaintSunniva at 12:54 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2007

Oh, I *wish*! What an incredible woman! No, the start of my obsession was when The Diddakoi was filmed as a UK TV series ("Kizzy") in the 70s, when I was 6 or 7, and I loved it. A tie-in edition of the book then appeared in my school bookclub, and I snapped it up - I think it was the second book I ever chose and bought with my own pocketmoney, and I was bewitched by her writing style from the first page. I've been collecting her books avidly ever since - 32 years now. I'm not bothered so much about getting her poetry, being a confirmed prose-lover, so I think the only thing I still want to find is Shiva's Pigeons... although, even after 3 decades of collecting, I still keep finding the odd book of hers that I'd never even heard of. I don't think there's a single Rumer Godden bibliography out there that's actually complete!

If you're keen to collect some more of her books, I've found www.abebooks.com to be the most useful place to look.

Regards,
Emma

posted by redandfiery at 5:02 am (EST) on Nov 8, 2007

I just read that you have an amazing 51 books by Rumer Godden, one of my favorite authors. Did you know her, perhaps?
Amy

posted by SaintSunniva at 5:49 pm (EST) on Oct 10, 2007