Rumer Godden (1907-1998)

Born Margaret Rumer Godden, she grew up in India. In 1925, she opened a dance school which she ran for 20 years. During this time she published her first best-seller, Black Narcissus (1939). In 1949 she moved to England to concentrate on her writing. In the early 1950s, Godden became interested in Catholicism, though she did not officially convert until 1968, and several of her later novels contain sympathetic portrayals of Roman Catholic priests and nuns. Two of her books deal with the subject of women in religious communities. In Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy and In This House of Brede she acutely examined the balance between the mystical, spiritual aspects of religion and the practical, human realities of religious life. Rumer Godden died at the age of 90 on November 8, 1998.
(From Wikipedia)