Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 17, 2026

Kingfishers Catch Fire

Kingfishers Catch Fire is a 1953 comedy novel by the British writer Rumer Godden. It was partly inspired by her own time living in Kashmir. The title is taken from the poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Last revised
Jul 17, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
129 w
Citations
1
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Kingfishers Catch Fire
First edition (UK)
AuthorRumer Godden
LanguageEnglish
GenreComedy
PublisherMacmillan (UK)
Viking Press (US)
Publication date1953
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint

Kingfishers Catch Fire is a 1953 comedy novel by the British writer Rumer Godden. It was partly inspired by her own time living in Kashmir.1 The title is taken from the poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Synopsis

After she is widowed and left with little money and two children, an independent-minded Englishwoman chooses to live in India rather than return to Britain. She is idealistically attracted to living a peasant lifestyle in a small village. A series of cultural misunderstandings follow with the local inhabitants.

References

References

  1. Lassner p.106
Bibliography

Bibliography

  • Lassner, Phyllis. Colonial Strangers: Women Writing the End of the British Empire. Rutgers University Press, 2004.
  • Le-Guilcher, Lucy. Rumer Godden: International and Intermodern Storyteller. Routledge, 2016.