Generations of readers have enjoyed the novels of Rumer Godden, which include The River and The Greengage Summer. Today, at 88, she lives in Scotland, but her early years were spent in India, and in this film she makes a return journey to the land of her childhood with her daughter Jane.
Her life story mirrors the elements that distinguish her novels - romance, intrigue and high adventure. During the days of the Raj, she defied social convention by setting up a dancing school, and was then ostracised by white society when she became pregnant by a young stockbroker and was forced to marry. Her husband later abandoned her and her two small daughters, taking with him the proceeds of her best-selling first novel, Black Narcissus. Penniless, she took her children to Kashmir during the Second World War and eventually abandoned colonial society to live a simple life in the local Indian community. But far from achieving contentment, she was to experience there the most dangerous episode of her life in India.
Director Sharon Maguire ; Series editor Roland Keating
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