By Nava Atlas | On June 3, 2022 | Updated August 21, 2022 | Comments (0)
British author Barbara Pym (1913 – 1980) was often compared to Jane Austen for her comedies of manner; she was called Britain’s “new Jane Austen.” Excellent Women was her second novel, published in England in 1952.
Barbara Pym’s novels explore manners and morals in village life with subtle, understated wit and keen insight into human nature that transcends their local flavor. The nine novels published in her lifetime are considered the Pym canon; there were four others published posthumously.
Many Pym devotees cite Excellent Women as their entry-point to her novels, and for legions of fans, it remains their favorite. Shirley Hazzard wrote of Barbara Pym: Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On June 3, 2022 | Updated August 21, 2022 | Comments (0)
The River by Rumer Godden, a 1946 novel, is a coming-of-age tale based on the author’s experiences growing up in the colonized Bengal region of India, now part of Bangladesh.
Like so many of Godden’s novels, this one has a cinematic flavor, and indeed, is one of the nine books by this prolific author to be adapted to film. In the late 1940s, Godden collaborated on the script for the film version of The River. It was directed by Jean Renoir and released in 1951.
The well-received film won an international award at the Venice Film Festival that year. It later became a great favorite of Martin Scorsese and later also influenced director Wes Anderson. It’s still considered a classic mid-century film. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On May 28, 2022 | Updated August 21, 2022 | Comments (0)
My Friend Flicka, the 1941 novel by Mary O’Hara, is this author’s most enduring work. The ranch living and rugged Wyoming landscape of her personal experience inspired the novel.
A classic that’s for “children of all ages,” My Friend Flicka is the story of Ken McLaughlin, a rancher’s son, and his untamed horse.
Ken’s father, a practical Scotsman, had no patience for his son’s dreaminess, so out of place in the harsh realities of the family’s horse-breeding farm. Ken becomes smitten with a wild colt, who he names Flicka, meaning “little filly.” Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On May 26, 2022 | Updated August 21, 2022 | Comments (0)
The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden is a 1958 coming-of-age novel, crackling with suspense, and portraying love and deceit in the Champagne country in France.
“On and off, all that hot French August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages…” is a memorable line from this engaging novel based on an incident in Godden’s youth.
Taking place in the shabby hotel of Les Oeillets, once gloriously elegant, the four children of the Grey family find themselves alone with the shady eccentrics who run the hotel. Like many of Godden’s novels, The Greengage Summer was adapted into a 1961 British film starring Kenneth More, Jane Asher, and Susannah York. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On May 25, 2022 | Updated June 6, 2025 | Comments (2)
The Peacock Spring by Rumer Godden is a 1975 novel by the British-born novelist and memoirist who was raised mainly in India at the height of colonial rule. Margaret Rumer Godden (1907 – 1998) led a life was as dramatic and colorful as her stories.
Inspired by her personal experiences and love for the Indian continent, The Peacock Spring is a beautiful and heartbreaking novel of loss of innocence and coming-of-age from the acclaimed author of Black Narcissus and The River.
Despite Godden’s love for the Indian people and continent, it is certainly time to consider literature written from the perspective of British colonialism from today’s perspective. However, she doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of wealth, privilege, race, and caste in colonial Indian society. As always, Godden’s prose is vivid and poetic.
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