Friday Find: The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden (1958)

The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden (1958)

'On and off, all that hot French August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages . . .'

(Dec 10, 1907 – Nov 8, 1998)

The faded elegance of Les Oeillets, with its bullet-scarred staircase and serene garden bouded by high walls; Elliot, the charming Englishman who became the children's guardian while their mother lay ill in hospital; sophisticated Mademoiselle Zizi, hotel patronne, and Eliot's devoted lover; 16 year old Joss, the oldest Grey girl, suddenly, achingly beautiful.

And the Marne river flowing silent and slow beyond them all . . .

They would merge together in a gold-green summer of discovery, until the fruit rotted on the trees and cold seeped into their bones . . .

THE GREENGAGE SUMMER is Rumer Godden's tense, evocative portrait of love and deceit in the Champagne country of the Marne - which became a memorable film starring Kenneth More, Jane Asher and Susannah York. And in a new preface for this edition she explains how it came to be written.