Goldengrove

Goldengrove #1

by Jill Paton Walsh

Once a year cousins Madge and Paul visit Goldengrove, their grandmother's idyllic Cornish home. But one year as Summer turns to Autumn and as they are drawn from childhood to maturity, their seemingly indomitable grandmother turns to Winter, and the precious moments of innocence begin to be leached away...

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Jill Paton Walsh was born Gillian Bliss in London on April 29th, 1937. She was educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St. Anne's College, Oxford. From 1959 to 1962 she taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School.

Jill Paton Walsh has won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize, 1974 (for a Children's novel) for The Emperor's Winding Sheet; The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award 1976 for Unleaving; The Universe Prize, 1984 for A Parcel of Patterns; and the Smarties Grand Prix, 1984, for Gaffer Samson's Luck.

Series:
* Imogen Quy
* Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane

Reviews

[Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book of Jill Paton Walsh's that I have read and won't be the last. A realistic novel, Goldengrove tells the story of two children who consider themselves to be cousins. Much against her mother's wishes, Madge manages to fit her holiday time to her grandmother's on the Cornish coast at the same time as Paul's. Comfortable and happy with each other's company, both children are torn between the staying within the safe boundaries of youth or treading into the world of the young adult. It is an incredible study of the complex nature of adolescence with Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem intricately woven into its centre. For me, it was, in terms of imagery, close to Sons and Lovers with a literal nod to Northanger Abbey. Very accomplished writing and one who utterly respects the skill and wisdom of the reader.

[Ben Trevail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of 2 'cousins' spending their summer with their Gran in Cornwall. I know this stretch of coast like the back of my hand having spent countless happy hours at Godrevy seal spotting and pottering in the rock pools. Paton Walsh evokes life by the sea wonderfully in her own unique style: 3rd person narrative jumping to 1st person thought-streams which took a little getting used to. 4 stars seems a little harsh, more like 4.5, it's highly skilled and evocative. I want to read more by Jill Paton Walsh.

[Richard Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

2022 Thumbnail Review #86 Goldengrove by Jill Paton Walsh

A masterpiece. Technically it would now be categorised as a YA novel, but that’s irrelevant. It achieves two things simultaneously. Firstly, it is an enactment of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem Spring and Fall; and yes, the main character is called Margaret. It traces that moment on the cusp of adulthood where a person begins to see that the ‘eternal’ verities of their childhood are slipping away, and can never be regained.

Secondly, it is a re-enactment of aspects of To the Lighthouse, and echoes it in its narrative technique. It’s set in a holiday home with Godrevy lighthouse just offshore, and we are party to the internal thought processes of several of the characters, including Margaret, her brother and her grandmother. It’s very skilfully done.

And to add to all that, one of the main characters is blind, and the novel conveys a profound sense of what sightlessness (and by implication, sight) is like. It is, like To the Lighthouse, a novel about seeing.

‘I’m a mirror; I just reflect. And all sorts of things happen in a mirror when there are people moving around it, but when it’s alone it’s empty, glassy and still. When I’m alone I’m just a weather-watcher. Who would I be with no weather, all alone in the dark?’

[Charlotte]

depressing, too much description and not enough story, not one I liked.

[Lynda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in Cornwall this atmospheric story strongly influenced by Woolfe’s To the Lighthouse is corrupted by dropping in and out of philosophical treatises

[Ginny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and have read it many times, so I'm surprised to discover that I hadn't reviewed it on Goodreads. I'll correct this omission soon.

[Virginia Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Madge and Paul have spent several weeks at their grandmother's seaside home every summer since they were very young. Now in her early teens, Madge's feelings for Paul have grown stronger; she loves him like a brother. At summer's end, she learns the family secret -- they are indeed siblings, born to parents who separated them when the marriage broke apart. There is a subplot involving her relationship with a blind man, showing her growing need to be needed and understood.

[Hirosasazaki Sasazaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quiet and poetic. I like it.

[Reynac5]

These book is about two cousins that spend their summer vacations:climbing the cliff,walking the beach at their gramma's house.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was depressing. Well written, but definitely depressing.

In first person present to boot.