Pauline Gedge

Author profile

born

December 11, 1945 in Auckland, New Zealand

gender

female

website

http://www.paulinegedge.com/

genre

Historical Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy

About this author

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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...more 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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Books by Pauline Gedge

Average rating: 4.03 · 2,693 ratings · 242 reviews · 20 distinct works

	Child of the Morning 4.13 avg rating — 656 ratings — published 1977 — 31 editions	My rating:
	The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge, Donna Gillespie (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 4.14 avg rating — 290 ratings — published 1978 — 12 editions	My rating:
	The Hippopotamus Marsh (Lord of the Two Lands, #1) 3.89 avg rating — 253 ratings — published 1998 — 11 editions	My rating:
	House of Illusions 4.00 avg rating — 234 ratings — published 1996 — 9 editions	My rating:
	Lady of the Reeds (Lady of the Reeds, #1) 4.14 avg rating — 284 ratings — published 1994 — 9 editions	My rating:
	The Oasis (Lords of the Two Lands, #2) 3.92 avg rating — 184 ratings — published 1988 — 8 editions	My rating:
	The Twelfth Transforming 3.85 avg rating — 188 ratings — published 1984 — 14 editions	My rating:
	The Horus Road (Lords of the Two Lands, #3) 4.01 avg rating — 162 ratings — published 1998 — 9 editions	My rating:
	Scroll Of Saqqara 4.06 avg rating — 156 ratings — published 1991 — 9 editions	My rating:
	Twice Born (The King's Man #1) 4.08 avg rating — 129 ratings — published 2007 — 7 editions	My rating:

More books by Pauline Gedge…

Series by Pauline Gedge

Lords of the Two Lands (3 books)
by Pauline Gedge

3.93 avg rating — 599 ratings

Lady of the Reeds (2 books)
by Pauline Gedge

4.08 avg rating — 518 ratings

The King's Man (3 books)
by Pauline Gedge

4.05 avg rating — 250 ratings

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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

2 people liked it

“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

1 person liked it

“The feathery palms that lined the drainage canals, the acacia thorns and sycamores, all glistened with the sheen of new, pale-green leaves, and in Khaemwaset’s gardens the vivid clusters of flowers had begun to bloom with an abandon that assaulted the eyes and filled the nostrils with delight.”
― Pauline Gedge, Scroll Of Saqqara

tags: garden

1 person liked it

See all Pauline Gedge's quotes »

Polls

Which book would you like to read for our April 15 - May 15 European Royalty group read?

The Scarlet Lion by Elizabeth Chadwick

15 votes, 32.6%

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

11 votes, 23.9%

Hugh and Bess by Susan Higginbotham

10 votes, 21.7%

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

6 votes, 13.0%

The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge

4 votes, 8.7%

46 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Historical Fictio...: * The Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List: Chapter 1, Historical Fiction	5	1018	Aug 03, 2009 08:14pm
The History Book ...: HISTORICAL FICTION POLLS	6	130	Jan 21, 2010 12:04am
Historical Fictio...: August/September Group Read(s): Mistress of Rome & (Runner-Up) The True Story of Hansel & Gretel	104	120	Aug 09, 2010 12:03pm
A History of Royals: GR Nominations: October/November 2010	44	82	Oct 11, 2010 09:51pm
A History of Royals: nominations for december/january	29	52	Nov 19, 2010 05:26pm
Romance Readers R...: 2010 Chubby Chunkster Challenge	516	854	Jan 22, 2011 11:12am
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts)	2596	666	Feb 28, 2011 09:05pm
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