Rosamunde

Pilcher

Introduction to Rosamunde Pilcher:

Rosamund Pilcher is famous for her wonderful descriptive books of some of most beautiful areas in England and Scotland. This talented author makes the reader feel like they are actually surrounded by the beauty of the land with her detailed descriptions. Her character development is so well done you actually experience life in these beautiful environments. This remarkable combination of description of the land and her well-developed characters has made three of her books, The Shell Seekers, September, and Coming Home, worldwide bestsellers. She has developed a great many devoted fans.

Her brake through was 'the shell seekers', but she had written a lot of books before that. Her books are easy to read and you can almost see every piece of nature or person she writes about.

Biography:

Rosamunde Pilcher was born Rosamunde Scott on September 22, 1942. She was raised by her mother in Cornwall, England while her father was in Burma. She recalls overhearing her mother's friend comment that a woman could make a living writing magazine articles. The thought stuck and Pilcher had made up her mind to be a writer before she was ten.

When Pilcher was 18 and serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service, was when she sold her first story to a magazine. After her service ended, she married Graham Hope Pilcher and moved to Invergowrie, Scotland. A mother of two sons and two daughters, she continued writing and sold several romances to Boons and Mills under the pseudonym Jane Fraser , and dabbled in playwriting shortly thereafter. It wasn't until 1965 that she permanently gave up the pseudonym and wrote strictly under the name Rosamunde Pilcher. Her romance novels sold well in England and her popularity grew when they were marketed in America in the early 1970's.

Pilcher wrote her “Dynasty and Lace” romances until she thought people were bored with them and tried her hand at more substantial writing. The result of this effort was "The Shell Seekers", published in the US by St. Martin's Press in 1988. This novel spent over a year on the New York Times Best Seller List and gained Pilcher international fame. The success of "The Shell Seekers" and her previous Best Sellers ("September" 1990 and "Coming Home" 1995) may have made Pilcher Scotland's highest earning resident but she still wears jeans and cardigans, enjoys gardening and visiting her grandchildren in the morning, and then will sit down to do bit of writing in the afternoon.

Out of an incredible number of novels, love histories, poems,... I´ve choosen this three books to talk about.

The Shell Seekers

The Shell Seekers is a novel of connection: of one family, and of the passions and heartbreak that have held them together for three generations.

Anyone who reads "The Shell Seekers" won´t ever forget Penelope Keeling and her three children---Nancy, Olivia, and Noel. Nor will he be likely to forget Sophie, Lawrence, Danus, Antoinia, Richard, and the other characters that move through this novel.

Mrs. Pilcher sets out to explore the disastrous effects that the prospect of an inheritance can have on a normal family. She also combines the lifestyle of upper-class Bohemians and the days before, during, and after World War II to tell a story that will be forever fresh.

From the beautiful beaches of Cornwall to the idyllic setting of Ibiza to the bustling life in London, Rosamunde Pilcher transports readers to a world as satisfying as a cup of tea with a plate of warm scones.

The action of the book shows how Penelope grows up in the sheltering world of her artist father and young, French mother. It tels about her first love with Ambrose, her true love with Richard, her most wonderful joys and her deepest heartbreaks; her anguish with her three adult children as she struggles to give them independence and feels their venom; how she comes to terms with her life and her beloved painting of "The Shell Seekers"...

Gemini:

Trying to put her life back into order, Rose is startled, while dining one evening in London, to see her face looking back at her. Realizing that she has a long lost twin Flora, Rose must at first adjust to the idea of a twin and the circumstances concerning their separation. Then when Flora suggests that Rose spend a few days in her apartment and Flora then must leave for Greece, Rose comes face to face with a man who thinks she is actually Flora. But Flora doesn't reckon with the fact that this man has given her twin a ring and now expects her to accompany him to see his sick grandmother in Scotland. His grandmother who met Flora five years ago wishes to see the more grown up Flora now in case she dies. Having nowhere to live and no job at the moment, Flora decides to go with the young man but has second thoughts when she meets his grandmother and other family members. The rest of the story moves along pleasantly. A real romance is in store for Rose, all loose ends are tied up in the end a la Pilcher style and there is a happy ending.

This is a sweet book with lovely characters during a simpler time. Written before Pilcher's best selling books, earlier titles like Under Gemini showed the earmarks of Pilcher's grander books like The Shell Seekers and Coming Home.

Snow in April:

Unsure of her impending marriage, Caroline Cliburn travels to Scotland with her younger brother Jody in tow to rethink her feelings and investigate her older brother's disappearance. An inexperienced driver, Caroline crashes during an unexpected snowstorm. Virtually uninjured from the accident, Caroline and Jody walk to the nearest home, which happens to be the estate of Oliver Cairney, a wealthy London businessman who is in town taking care of his deceased brother's affairs. Oliver graciously asks the two to spend the night, and it is obvious from the start that the wealthy Londoner has eyes for Caroline. But when a neighbor thwarts any romance between the two by informing Caroline that Oliver is practically engaged, Caroline and Jody leave hastily, without even saying goodbye. But love always finds a way, and Caroline's sudden illness throws the two would-be lovers together once more.