Pauline Gedge’s Followers (501)

Pauline Gedge

Born

in Auckland, New Zealand

December 11, 1945

Website

http://www.paulinegedge.com/

Genre

Historical Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy

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I was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on December 11, 1945, the first of three girls. Six years later my family emigrated to England where my father, an ex-policeman, wanted to study for the Anglican ministry. We lived in an ancient and very dilapidated cottage in the heart of the English Buckinghamshire woodland, and later in a small village in Oxfordshire called Great Haseley. I grew up surrounded by countryside that I observed, played in, and grew to know and love passionately, and I wrote lyrically of its many moods.

My father had his first parish in Oxford, so in 1956, having passed the eleven-plus exam, a torture now fortunately defunct, I attended what was then the Oxford Central School for Girls. I was a very good student in everythin I was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on December 11, 1945, the first of three girls. Six years later my family emigrated to England where my father, an ex-policeman, wanted to study for the Anglican ministry. We lived in an ancient and very dilapidated cottage in the heart of the English Buckinghamshire woodland, and later in a small village in Oxfordshire called Great Haseley. I grew up surrounded by countryside that I observed, played in, and grew to know and love passionately, and I wrote lyrically of its many moods.

My father had his first parish in Oxford, so in 1956, having passed the eleven-plus exam, a torture now fortunately defunct, I attended what was then the Oxford Central School for Girls. I was a very good student in everything but mathematics. Any academic discipline that is expressed and interpreted through words I could conquer, but math was bewildering and foreign, a maze of numbers and ridiculous symbols with which I had nothing in common. I liked chemistry, because I was allowed to play with pretty crystals and chemicals that behaved as if they had magic in them. I studied the violin, an instrument I struggled over and gave up after two years, and the piano, which I enjoyed and continue to play, along with the recorders. Music has always been important to me.

Then in 1959 my father accepted a parish in Virden, Manitoba, and the family left for Canada. After three months at the local high school, I was sent to a boarding school in Saskatchewan. It was the most dehumanizing, miserable experience of my life. In 1961 I began one inglorious year at the University of Manitoba’s Brandon College. I did not work very hard, and just before final exams I was told that my sister Anne was dying. I lost all interest in passing.

Anne wanted to die in the country where she was born, so we all returned to New Zealand. She died a month after our arrival, and is buried in Auckland. The rest of us moved down to the tip of the South Island where my father had taken the parish of Riverton. For a year I worked as a substitute teacher in three rural schools. In ’64 I attended the Teachers’ Training College in Dunedin, South Island, where my writing output became prolific but again my studies suffered. I did not particularly want to be a teacher. All I wanted to do was stay home and read and write. I was eighteen, bored and restless. I met my first husband there.

In 1966 I married and returned to Canada, this time to Alberta, with my husband and my family. I found work at a day care in Edmonton. My husband and I returned to England the next year, and my first son, Simon, was born there in January ’68. In 1969 we came back to Edmonton, and my second son was born there in December 1970.

By 1972 I was divorced, and I moved east of Edmonton to the village of Edgerton. I wrote my first novel and entered it in the Alberta Search-for-a-New-Novelist Competition. It took fourth place out of ninety-eight entries, and though it received no prize, the comments from the judges and my family encouraged me to try again. The next year I entered my second attempt, a bad novel that sank out of sight. Finally in 1975 I wrote and submitted Child of the Morning, the story of Hatshepsut, an 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh, which won the competition. With it came a publishing deal with Macmillan of Canada and the rest, as they say, is history.
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12 posts
Pauline Gedge's Blog

Pauline Gedge isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

One Ring to Rule Them All!

Pauline’s book sales are still chugging along, but as you can imagine, she has changed gears in retirement. She has always been humbled and grateful that her books have touched so many lives, but she’s divesting herself of some of the things that her hard work and your appreciation of it brought her. Pauline is […]

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Published on April 04, 2021 14:14

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Combine Editions
Pauline Gedge’s books

Average rating: 4.13 · 16,451 ratings · 1,192 reviews · 48 distinct works • Similar authors

	Child of the Morning 4.14 avg rating — 4,659 ratings — published 1977 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge, Donna Gillespie (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 4.19 avg rating — 1,841 ratings — published 1978 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lady of the Reeds (Lady of the Reeds, #1) 4.22 avg rating — 1,569 ratings — published 1994 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hippopotamus Marsh (Lords of the Two Lands, #1) 4.05 avg rating — 1,399 ratings — published 1998 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Twelfth Transforming 4.06 avg rating — 1,150 ratings — published 1984 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	House of Illusions (Lady of the Reeds, #2) 4.16 avg rating — 1,098 ratings — published 1996 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scroll of Saqqara 4.05 avg rating — 948 ratings — published 1990 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Oasis (Lords of the Two Lands, #2) 4.16 avg rating — 887 ratings — published 1999 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Horus Road (Lords of the Two Lands, #3) 4.19 avg rating — 816 ratings — published 2000 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Twice Born (The King's Man #1) 4.18 avg rating — 760 ratings — published 2007 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Pauline Gedge…

Series by Pauline Gedge

Lords of the Two Lands (3 books)
by

Pauline Gedge

4.12 avg rating — 3,130 ratings

Lady of the Reeds (2 books)
by

Pauline Gedge

4.20 avg rating — 2,667 ratings

The King's Man (3 books)
by

Pauline Gedge

4.14 avg rating — 1,668 ratings

Quotes by Pauline Gedge (?)

“... but now men who could work preferred to beg, and the artists forgot that their calling was noble and became imitators instead of creators, charging exorbitant sums for the rubbish they churned out with one eye closed.”
― Pauline Gedge, The Eagle and the Raven

tags: artists, beg, creators, forgot, imitators, rubbish

8 likes

“The night folded around them with a sweetness and poignancy heightened by the new pale stars that prickled silver fire in the water of the lily ponds, by the scented winds, and by the nearness of each other.”
― Pauline Gedge, Child of the Morning

tags: egypt, love, night

5 likes

“Bint-Anath was approaching, her many-pleated, floor-length sheath floating scarlet around her, her slim shoulders visible under a billowing white flounced cloak, and the long black ringlets of her wig already glistening with melted wax... She was like a goddess, like Hathor herself, moving lightly in the circle of reverence the guests had provided, her pair of massive Shardana guards towering beside her and her exquisitely gowned and painted retinue behind.”
― Pauline Gedge, Scroll of Saqqara

tags: goddess

4 likes

See all Pauline Gedge's quotes »

Polls

HISTORICAL FICTION POLL "B"
There will be a series of polls to begin putting together a potential reading list for the "historical fiction folder". I have divided the books into groups of 15 books apiece. Make sure to choose your favorite from each poll and make sure to vote in each of these polls so that we can generate a list according to priorities and interests. You will only receive one notification per poll. There will be simultaneous polls so please make sure to vote in each one.

Patrick O'Brian

MASTER AND COMMANDER BY PATRICK O'BRIAN

14 votes, 32.6%

Mark Twain

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI BY MARK TWAIN

5 votes, 11.6%

Erich Maria Remarque

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT BY ERICH MARIA REMARQUE

5 votes, 11.6%

The Persian Boy (Alexander the Great, #2) by Mary Renault

Mary Renault

THE PERSIAN BOY BY MARY RENAULT

5 votes, 11.6%

Steven Pressfield

THE VIRTUES OF WAR: A NOVEL OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD

4 votes, 9.3%

Steven Pressfield

GATES OF FIRE: AN EPIC NOVEL OF THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD

2 votes, 4.7%

Steven Pressfield

THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN: A NOVEL BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD

2 votes, 4.7%

Kenneth Roberts

ARUNDEL BY KENNETH ROBERTS

2 votes, 4.7%

Pauline Gedge

THE EAGLE AND THE RAVEN BY PAULINE GEDGE

1 vote, 2.3%

Rosemary Sutcliff

THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH BY ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF

1 vote, 2.3%

Wallace Breem

EAGLE IN THE SNOW BY WALLACE BREEM

1 vote, 2.3%

Robert Louis Stevenson

THE BLACK ARROW BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

1 vote, 2.3%

Steven Pressfield

KILLING ROMMEL: A NOVEL BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD

0 votes, 0.0%

Mary Renault

THE LAST OF THE WINE BY MARY RENAULT

0 votes, 0.0%

Fire from Heaven (Alexander the Great, #1) by Mary Renault

Mary Renault

FIRE FROM HEAVEN BY MARY RENAULT

0 votes, 0.0%

43 total votes

5 comments

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The History Book ...: HISTORICAL FICTION POLLS	6	364	Jan 21, 2010 12:04AM
Historical Fictio...: August/September Group Read(s): Mistress of Rome & (Runner-Up) The True Story of Hansel & Gretel	102	152	Aug 09, 2010 12:03PM
A History of Royals: GR Nominations: October/November 2010	44	81	Oct 11, 2010 09:51PM
A History of Royals: nominations for december/january	27	56	Nov 19, 2010 05:26PM
Romance Readers R...: 2010 Chubby Chunkster Challenge	515	852	Jan 22, 2011 11:12AM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts)	2578	1113	Feb 28, 2011 09:05PM
A History of Royals: * Egyptian Dynasties	40	146	Sep 19, 2011 10:14PM
Really Good Egyptian Historical Fiction- Recommendations Needed	2	43	Mar 11, 2012 07:13AM

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Pauline Gedge’s Followers (501)

Pauline Gedge

12 postsPauline Gedge's Blog

One Ring to Rule Them All!

Combine EditionsPauline Gedge’s books

Series by Pauline Gedge

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

12 posts
Pauline Gedge's Blog

Combine Editions
Pauline Gedge’s books