The young ones find a willing guide, companion, and protector in charming Englishman Eliot, a longtime resident at Les Oeillets and Mlle. This must have been lurking on the back shelf in the spare bedroom for years, ever since I bought it on a bookseller's recommendation as a way of weaning a teen off Jacqueline Wilson and onto something slightly more grown-up.

BEN-HUR' TO RACE FOR 213 MINUTES: Film Will Be Third Longest Shown – Small and Saville Planning 'Dear Spy' ".This is a fascinating coming of age story, narrated by Cecil, who, at the time of the events, is 13 years old.

There are too many women alone and there is too little money—but on the Marne there are also visitors, pilgrims really, who come from all over the world to see the battlefields and find graves of lost ones. I can hear the sounds that seem to belong only to Les Oeillets: the patter of the poplar trees along the courtyard wall, of a tap running in the kitchen mixed with the sound of high French voices, of the thump of Rex’s tail and another thump of someone washing clothes on the river bank; of barges puffing upstream and Mauricette’s toneless singing – she always sang through her nose; of Toinette and Nicole’s quick loud French as they talked to one another out of the upstairs windows; of the faint noise of the town and, near, the plop of a fish or of a greengage falling. Willmouse had the bank under the cherry tree, of course, but he also owned the little salon; though he had never been in it, it was his. There’s something in the air, clearly: I was reminded of this lovely book when I wrote about books for the summer last week. In this 1958 novel by Rumer Godden (one of those once well-known authors that I’d never heard of before I started hanging out online with GR friends who love older books), five English children, ages 5 to 16, are taken by their mother to France for an educational vacation - touring the battlefields of France so they’ll have more appreciation for the sacrifices of others.

Der Roman benötigt einige Zeit, um Fahrt aufzunehmen, er ist auch nicht auf jeder Seite spannend und verliert sich an einigen Stellen etwas in der Geschichte, was mich beim Lesen manchmal ein bisschen ermüdet hat. The story opens with the five children stranded in France with their mother, who has been taken severely ill with septicemia. The Greengage Summer is a coming of age story, narrated by 13 year old Cecil (a girl), that starts out very languid and slow-paced, but then the tension starts building as they realize something is very off with one of their friends at the hotel, and some horrifying events happen.

There are some interesting bits, especially towards the end of the book with theft and murder, but overall I found the entire book a disappointing slog with a few high points. This story line is very different to us now as readers, with our modern perspective of an o Joss Grey (Susannah York), a 16-year-old English girl, finds herself responsible for the care of her three younger siblings on a summer holiday in France when their mother is suddenly taken ill and rushed to the hospital.The five Grey children were: Joss (the eldest/sixteen), Cecil (the narrator), and the three younger kids…. She handles some tricky scenes (as when she gets drunk with champagne and when she is assaulted by an amorous scullery boy) with assurance. Godden is going to be one of those authors for which I cannot leave any of her works unread, and OMG she wrote 60 books.

I can't understand any mother, no matter how ill, choosing to entrust her children to the care of strangers, rather than sending for their admittedly judgemental Uncle William. A nurse came every few days to change bandages — and the English boyfriend’s mother (so happy to have a girl in the house with 4 sons), kept me feed…. Alongside this, the reader is treated to an intriguing mystery in the form of Mr Eliot, who is an absolutely fascinating and appalling character in equal measure. Best quality of read in spirit and in lyrical prose for the year and exactly what I needed for a gloomy spring. They are enroute to a holiday in France’s champagne-and-greengage country when their mother is taken ill and is whisked off to hospital.

I think now that the discontent was because we were never quite comfortable in Southstone and the rudeness came from the discontent; it was as-if a pattern-mould were being pressed down on us into which we could not fit. Most of the time, she is 13-year-old Cecil (short for Cecilia, I think, though Godden never says) Grey telling what happened to her brother, her sisters and herself that summer while their mother was in hospital. A wonderful story about growing up but, I think because of how it was told, transcending childhood to become a story we can all relate to. Then she removes the mother - who becomes dangerously ill with sepsis - and the children are set adrift.