Rumer Godden on M M Kaye

In volume two of her autobiography, A House With Four Rooms, the English author Rumer Godden - also born in India - mentions that she was invited to be on the panel of the Book Society. 

She writes:

‘The work was punitive, a choice having to be made each month with some six to ten recommendations…  I did though, make two ‘finds’…

…Muriel Spark’s Memento Mori.  ...The other was of a different calibre, not a ‘literary’ find; a novel called The Shadow of the Moon by Mollie M Kaye came to me.  “I think you should take note of this,” I told the panel.  “Here is a born story-teller.”  The style was not to our liking but the power of Mollie’s story-telling overrode everything and I was not surprised when, more than ten years later, encouraged by Paul Scott of The Jewel in the Crown, Mollie Kaye published The Far Pavilions which brought her instant and worldwide fame, a film, tours of India, appearances everywhere and a fortune.  “It would happen to me,” Mollie wrote to me, “when I have one bedsock in the grave.”  That was typical of the delightful and modest person she is.  In actuality, not many people know North West India and the Frontier, scene of her novels, as Mollie does.  Her husband, General Hamilton, was one of the few army Generals who spoke Pushtu and was taken as blood brother of the tribesmen.  pp.201’