12 Facts About Rumer Godden

Margaret Rumer Godden was a British author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books.

Rumer Godden grew up with her three sisters in Narayanganj, colonial India, where her father, a shipping company executive, worked for the Brahmaputra Steam Navigation Company.

Rumer Godden's parents sent the girls to England for schooling, as was the custom of the time, but brought them back to Narayanganj when the First World War began.

Rumer Godden returned to the United Kingdom with her sisters to continue her interrupted schooling in 1920, spending time at Moira House School in Eastbourne and eventually training as a dance teacher.

Rumer Godden went back to Calcutta in 1925 and opened a dance school for English and Indian children.

Rumer Godden ran the school for 20 years with the help of her sister Nancy.

Rumer Godden returned to the United Kingdom in 1945 to concentrate on her writing, frequently moving house but living mostly in Sussex and London.

Rumer Godden won a 1972 Whitbread award for The Diddakoi, a young adult novel about Gypsies, televised by the BBC as Kizzy.

Rumer Godden moved to Moniaive in Dumfriesshire in 1978, when she was 70, to be near her daughter Jane.

Rumer Godden was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1993.

Rumer Godden visited India once more, in 1994, returning to Kashmir for the filming of a BBC Bookmark documentary about her life and books.

Rumer Godden died on 8 November 1998 at the age of 90 after a series of strokes; her ashes were buried with those of her second husband in Rye.