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Reviews
“Rumer Godden’s ‘China Court’ is the sort of timeless English novel that wears as well as a Burberry and is just as impervious to vagaries of fashion.”
The Los Angeles Times“Godden was a writer who constantly drew on her own life experiences.”
The Guardian“Her prose is pure, delicate, and gently witty.”
The New York Times
Rumer Godden (1907–98) was the acclaimed author of over 60 works of fiction and non-fiction for adults and children. Born in England, she and her siblings grew up in Narayanganj, India, and she later spent many years living in Calcutta and Kashmir. Several of her novels were made into films, including Black Narcissus, The Greengage Summer and The River, which was filmed by Jean Renoir. She was appointed OBE in 1993.
Linda Grant was born in Liverpool, England in 1951, and read English at the University of York. Her first novel, The Cast Iron Shore (1996), won the David Higham Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize. Her second, When I Lived in Modern Times (2000), set in Palestine immediately after the Second World War, won the Orange Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Fiction. Her novel, Still Here (2002), set in Liverpool, tells the story of a middle-aged English woman and her relationship with an American architect. Her non-fiction includes Sexing the Millennium: A Political History of the Sexual Revolution (1993) and Remind Me Who I Am, Again (1998), an account of her mother's dementia, which won the MIND Book of the Year/Allen Lane Award. The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel (2006), was winner of the 2006 Lettre Ulysses Award; and The Clothes on Their Backs (2008) was shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The Thoughtful Dresser (2009) was followed by We Had It So Good (2011) and Upstairs at the Party (2014). Linda’s seventh novel The Dark Circle (2016) was shortlisted for the Bailey’s Prize and the Wingate Prize; her next novel, A Stranger City, was published in 2019 and won the Wingate Literary prize for 2020, and her latest novel, The Story of the Forest, was published to international acclaim in 2023. She has lived in London since 1984.
Emily Maude is an illustrator and designer based in Brighton. Her artwork has been commissioned by clients around the world, including Anthropologie, Fragonard, Liberty and Paul Smith. She has illustrated books and articles featured in The New York Times, Octopus Publishing, Canns Down Press and Amazon, among many others. Emily is also an experienced retail consultant, buyer and product developer, and currently works for the National Theatre, London.
