Rosamunde Pilcher (1924–2019)
Author of The Shell Seekers
About the Author
Rosamunde Pilcher was born Rosamunde Scott on September 22, 1924 in Lelant, Cornwall, England. When World War II broke out, she left school and went to work for the Foreign Office. In 1944, she joined the Women's Royal Naval Service and was stationed in Ceylon when the war ended. Her first short show more story was published while she was serving in Ceylon. She married Graham Pilcher in 1946. Her first novel, Half-Way to the Moon, was published in 1949 under the penname Jane Fraser. She continued writing books under that penname into the early 1960s, but in 1955 she also published her first book under her own name entitled A Secret to Tell. Her best-known novel, The Shell Seekers, was published in 1987. Her other novels included Sleeping Tiger, The End of the Summer, Wild Mountain Thyme, Voices in Summer, September, Coming Home, and Winter Solstice. She also wrote short stories. She died after a short illness on February 6, 2019 at the age of 94. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Rosamunde Pilcher
Reader's Digest Auswahlbücher 194 : September. Favoritensturz. Der Flug des Kondors. Der grosse Bellheim (1994) 4 copies
Cinco relatos para mujeres 3 copies
El jardín de las caléndulas 2 copies
Rosamunde Pilcher Collection 1: Die besten Filme aus 10 Jahren Rosamunde Pilcher [3 DVDs] (2004) 2 copies
Golden Harlequin Library, Volume VI: Never to Love / A Long Way From Home / The Golden Rose (1970) — Contributor — 2 copies
The Shell Seekers 2 2 copies
Ostatnie dni lata 1 copy
Φωνές το καλοκαίρι 1 copy
The Guilty 1 copy
Cirkels in het zand 1 copy
Flowers In the Rain & Others 1 copy
Карусель : [16+] 1 copy
SEPTEMBER: #1 SEPTEMBER 1 copy
The before-Christmas Present and Miss Cameron at Christmas: WITH Miss Cameron at Christmas (2005) 1 copy
Rundum glücklich (film) 1 copy
Argentine Tango [film] 1 copy
Liebe, Diebe, Diamanten 1 copy
Vollkommen unerwartet (film) 1 copy
Golgota intoarcerii acasa 1 copy
Associated Works
Reader's Digest Condensed Books 1996 v02: Coming Home / Come to Grief / That Camden Summer / Blaze (1996) — Author — 160 copies
Reader's Digest Select Editions 2000 v06 #252: Before I Say Good-Bye / Winter Solstice / Demolition Angel / Julie and Romeo (2001) 37 copies
Reader's Digest Condensed Books 1991 v01: Trial / September / The White Puma / Mrs Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish (1991) — Contributor — 30 copies, 1 review
Reader's Digest Condensed Books: Code to Zero • Winter Solstice • High Risk • Beneath the Skin (2000) — Author — 11 copies
Australian Reader's Digest Select Editions: The Visitor • Winter Solstice • The White House Connection • Follow the Stars Home (2001) 4 copies
Livros Condensados: Solstício de Inverno | Refém | O Melhor da Vida | Vento Uivante (2002) — Author — 4 copies
Reader's Digest Condensed Books: Come to Grief • Coming Home • Oscar: The True Story of a Husky • That Camden Summer (1996) 4 copies
Det Bästas bokval, vol. 219 3 copies
Válogatott könyvek 2001/5 Ken Follett - Visszaszámlálás; Rosamunde Pilcher - Téli napforduló; Michael Palmer - A beteg; Douglas Preston és Lincoln Child - Viharfelhő (2001) — Contributor — 2 copies
Reader's Digest : libros selectos : Visita Mortal : Mutuo rescate : Solsticio de invierno : El espejo — Author — 1 copy
Urlaubsträume. Geschichten für die schönste Zeit des Jahres — Author — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Scott Pilcher, Rosamunde
- Other names
- Fraser, Jane (pseudonym)
- Birthdate
- 1924-09-22
- Date of death
- 2019-02-06
- Gender
- female
- Education
- St. Clare's, Polwithen
Howell's School, Llandaff
Miss Kerr-Sanders' Secretarial College - Occupations
- romance novelist
- Organizations
- Women's Royal Naval Service (WWII)
- Awards and honors
- Order of the British Empire (Officer, 2002)
- Agent
- Felicity Bryan
- Relationships
- Pilcher, Robin (son)
- Short biography
- Rosamunde Scott was born on 22 September 1924 in Lelant, Cornwall, England, UK, daughter of Helen and Charles Scott, a British commander. Just before her birth her father was posted in Burma, her mother remained in England. She attended St. Clare's Polwithen and Howell's School Llandaff before going on to Miss Kerr-Sanders' Secretarial College. She began writing when she was seven, and published her first short story when she was 18. From 1943 through 1946, Pilcher served with the Women's Naval Service. On 7 December 1946, she married Graham Hope Pilcher, a war hero and jute industry executive who died in March 2009. They moved to Dundee, Scotland, where she still lives today with a dog in Perthshire. They had two daughters and two sons, and fourteen grandchildren. Her son, Robin Pilcher, is also a novelist.
In 1949, her first book, a romance novel, was published by Mills & Boon, under the pseudonym Jane Fraser. She published a further ten novels under that name. In 1955, she also began writing under her married name Rosamunde Pilcher, by 1965 she her own name to all of her novels. In 1996, her novel Coming Home won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by Romantic Novelists' Association. She retired from writing in 2000. Two years later, she was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). - Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Lelant, Cornwall, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Lelant, Cornwall, England, UK
Dundee, Angus, Scotland, UK - Place of death
- Longforgan, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
Did you ever read a 826 page novel and when you closed the back board onto the last page wish that there were another 826 pages to go? That is how I felt coming to the end of Coming Home. The title of this novel seems infinitely appropriate for me, because reading Pilcher again feels exactly like that--Coming Home. She makes her settings and her people so real and warm that you want to belong there and to remain listening to the sea and watching the waves crash on a Cornwall beach.
It is 1935 show more and we are introduced to Judith Dunbar, a fourteen year old about to embark on life at boarding school while her parents and little sister, Jess, are living a world away in Singapore. Her father works for a British company abroad, and the practice of sending older children to school and leaving them in the care of relatives is not unusual. Judith has her father’s sister, Aunt Louise, with whom she is to spend holidays, and makes friends with Loveday Carey-Lewis, who is to have a huge impact on her life and fortunes.
Pilcher writes a very linear novel in Coming Home, taking Judith from 1935 England, when there are only whispers of war, and through the war years into 1945. We watch her grow, experience her loves and her losses and in a style that few other authors can match, we see, feel and touch the world she lives in. We hope with her and grieve with her, and I am unashamed to say I shed a few tears with her.
There are a host of characters in Coming Home, but they are like your family--you do not forget who they are or where they fit into the fabric of Judith’s life. One of the major characters is Cornwall itself. The sea, the towns, the colors and the skies that make it special and different from other places in England or the rest of the world.
There is not a single character, from Judith herself to Mr. Nettlebed (the crusty butler who is transformed into a gardener by the war effort), who isn’t as real as the couple who live across the street from you. Her romances are believable and gripping, her twists and turns ring so true to the era and the realities of the times and the war. She can give you a happy ending without leaving you with a saccharin aftertaste. She satisfies your emotional needs without stretching credibility. Few can do this with any success, but Pilcher does it seamlessly.
I first read this novel back in the mid 1990s. I was younger then. I was afraid that with the sharpness of the years and the age of romance behind me it might feel dated or diminished. It doesn’t. As I stumbled into familiar passages, the story came back and captivated me again. I found I still cared about Judith, Loveday, Edward, Gus and Jeremy, Molly and Jess. The descriptions of the path leading to the cove and the charm of Nancherrow were still magnets for me. I could close my eyes and see the Laura Knight image Pilcher described and I knew who Loveday was and who she was to Gus.
I haven’t Cornwall to come home to, but going home to Rosamunde Pilcher is almost the same thing. A huge thank you to Lori for reading with me and making this an even better experience by doing so. show less
It is 1935 show more and we are introduced to Judith Dunbar, a fourteen year old about to embark on life at boarding school while her parents and little sister, Jess, are living a world away in Singapore. Her father works for a British company abroad, and the practice of sending older children to school and leaving them in the care of relatives is not unusual. Judith has her father’s sister, Aunt Louise, with whom she is to spend holidays, and makes friends with Loveday Carey-Lewis, who is to have a huge impact on her life and fortunes.
Pilcher writes a very linear novel in Coming Home, taking Judith from 1935 England, when there are only whispers of war, and through the war years into 1945. We watch her grow, experience her loves and her losses and in a style that few other authors can match, we see, feel and touch the world she lives in. We hope with her and grieve with her, and I am unashamed to say I shed a few tears with her.
There are a host of characters in Coming Home, but they are like your family--you do not forget who they are or where they fit into the fabric of Judith’s life. One of the major characters is Cornwall itself. The sea, the towns, the colors and the skies that make it special and different from other places in England or the rest of the world.
There is not a single character, from Judith herself to Mr. Nettlebed (the crusty butler who is transformed into a gardener by the war effort), who isn’t as real as the couple who live across the street from you. Her romances are believable and gripping, her twists and turns ring so true to the era and the realities of the times and the war. She can give you a happy ending without leaving you with a saccharin aftertaste. She satisfies your emotional needs without stretching credibility. Few can do this with any success, but Pilcher does it seamlessly.
I first read this novel back in the mid 1990s. I was younger then. I was afraid that with the sharpness of the years and the age of romance behind me it might feel dated or diminished. It doesn’t. As I stumbled into familiar passages, the story came back and captivated me again. I found I still cared about Judith, Loveday, Edward, Gus and Jeremy, Molly and Jess. The descriptions of the path leading to the cove and the charm of Nancherrow were still magnets for me. I could close my eyes and see the Laura Knight image Pilcher described and I knew who Loveday was and who she was to Gus.
I haven’t Cornwall to come home to, but going home to Rosamunde Pilcher is almost the same thing. A huge thank you to Lori for reading with me and making this an even better experience by doing so. show less
Rosamunde Pilcher writes in a way that is so comfortable you feel you have come home after time away and your mother is catching you up on all the shenanigans of your sisters while you were gone. She describes Cornwall, a world in which everyone gardens, lives comfortably, dips in the ocean, builds comfy fires in the evening, and knows the neighbors, and she does it in a way that makes you feel you belong to this place where you have never been.
The weather was changing, the barometer show more dropping. A wind had risen, flowing in from the southwest, warm and blustery. On the horizon, clouds banked in dark billows, but the sky remained blue, crossed by banks of white cumulus. The sea, observed from the gardens of Tremenheere, no longer lay blue and flat as silk, but was whipped into flecks of surf. Doors slammed and windows rattled, and sheets and pillowcases and Joshua’s nappies flapped and bellied on the washing line, making a noise like badly set sails.
I can see the wash on the line and feel the wind whipping the sea, and I want to go stand outside and catch the breeze on my face and smell the salt in the air.
I knew who the culprit was going to be (although I got the reason wrong), and I figured on the slight romantic twist, but it didn’t matter at all. It was a story told for the joy of the experience, for the knowing of the people, for the visit to Cornwall. It was like a tiny vacation...and what better time to take a vacation than summer? show less
The weather was changing, the barometer show more dropping. A wind had risen, flowing in from the southwest, warm and blustery. On the horizon, clouds banked in dark billows, but the sky remained blue, crossed by banks of white cumulus. The sea, observed from the gardens of Tremenheere, no longer lay blue and flat as silk, but was whipped into flecks of surf. Doors slammed and windows rattled, and sheets and pillowcases and Joshua’s nappies flapped and bellied on the washing line, making a noise like badly set sails.
I can see the wash on the line and feel the wind whipping the sea, and I want to go stand outside and catch the breeze on my face and smell the salt in the air.
I knew who the culprit was going to be (although I got the reason wrong), and I figured on the slight romantic twist, but it didn’t matter at all. It was a story told for the joy of the experience, for the knowing of the people, for the visit to Cornwall. It was like a tiny vacation...and what better time to take a vacation than summer? show less
Rosamunde, darling, your novels are my guilty pleasure, but a thousand pages of middle class bleating is rather trying on the old sensibilities. I really only bought a second hand copy of this weighty tome because I could have sworn that I'd abandoned the story midway through, many years back, only to keep remember rather more and more as I read on. I think I must have given up with only the last two hundred pages to go. That'll teach me.
Anyway. While I raved about The Shell Seekers, I found show more myself rather more critical of Coming Home. I do love the Carey-Lewises, cliché ridden ensemble of romantic stereotypes though they are, and their beautiful Du Maurier style house in Cornwall, Nancherrow, but I could cheerfully throttle hearty heroine Judith, and the jolly hockey-sticks dialogue spouted by each and every character doesn't help. Judith is a horrid combination of Austen's Fanny Price and Gaskell's Margaret Hale, insufferably noble and beloved by all (she also has a curious combination of blonde hair and dark eyelashes, but at least she doesn't have violet eyes, like her friend Loveday). Packed off to boarding school at fourteen, Judith is plagued by a series of unfortunate events which leave her 'independent', not to mention 'pretty' (Pilcher's highest accolade for her female characters) and smart. She is assimilated by the aforementioned upper class Carey-Lewises, who drift through life on a cloud of liberal lifestyles and idyllic Cornish landscapes, bestowing the fairy dust of charm and patronage on assorted hangers-on. Daughter Loveday is at school with Judith, but there is also golden boy Edward and - wait for it - Athena, plus parents Diana and the Colonel, in the family of posh eccentrics. Everything is too this and frightfully that, and everyone is a darling or a dear. I think I might have found them all too, too amusing if Judith was more of an antidote, but she simply drips with the same ridiculous phrases. Did people really talk like that in real life, and if they did, please tell me that nobody this side of the 1950s still does? And the period-accurate, but still grating, insistence that all 'pretty' young women must ultimately wish to get married and have babies, also sets my teeth on edge - Judith/Rosamunde refers to a senior female officer in the WRNS during the War as an 'embittered old hag of a spinster' and a 'prune-faced woman with a power complex' because she puts duty before giving Judith the weekend off to lunch with Diana and Loveday!
The author is more of a storyteller than a wordsmith, granted, but writing 'her knees literally turned to water' (are you sure about that?) and starting sentence after sentence (after sentence) with 'as well' are not easily overlooked after the first five hundred pages. In fact, the whole novel could have been comfortably reduced to five hundred pages, because bar a handful of unlikely plot twists and hackneyed romantic devices, nothing much really happens. Rosamunde Pilcher could learn a lot from Daphne Du Maurier!
An epic aga saga for readers who suffer from rose-tinted nostalgia. show less
Anyway. While I raved about The Shell Seekers, I found show more myself rather more critical of Coming Home. I do love the Carey-Lewises, cliché ridden ensemble of romantic stereotypes though they are, and their beautiful Du Maurier style house in Cornwall, Nancherrow, but I could cheerfully throttle hearty heroine Judith, and the jolly hockey-sticks dialogue spouted by each and every character doesn't help. Judith is a horrid combination of Austen's Fanny Price and Gaskell's Margaret Hale, insufferably noble and beloved by all (she also has a curious combination of blonde hair and dark eyelashes, but at least she doesn't have violet eyes, like her friend Loveday). Packed off to boarding school at fourteen, Judith is plagued by a series of unfortunate events which leave her 'independent', not to mention 'pretty' (Pilcher's highest accolade for her female characters) and smart. She is assimilated by the aforementioned upper class Carey-Lewises, who drift through life on a cloud of liberal lifestyles and idyllic Cornish landscapes, bestowing the fairy dust of charm and patronage on assorted hangers-on. Daughter Loveday is at school with Judith, but there is also golden boy Edward and - wait for it - Athena, plus parents Diana and the Colonel, in the family of posh eccentrics. Everything is too this and frightfully that, and everyone is a darling or a dear. I think I might have found them all too, too amusing if Judith was more of an antidote, but she simply drips with the same ridiculous phrases. Did people really talk like that in real life, and if they did, please tell me that nobody this side of the 1950s still does? And the period-accurate, but still grating, insistence that all 'pretty' young women must ultimately wish to get married and have babies, also sets my teeth on edge - Judith/Rosamunde refers to a senior female officer in the WRNS during the War as an 'embittered old hag of a spinster' and a 'prune-faced woman with a power complex' because she puts duty before giving Judith the weekend off to lunch with Diana and Loveday!
The author is more of a storyteller than a wordsmith, granted, but writing 'her knees literally turned to water' (are you sure about that?) and starting sentence after sentence (after sentence) with 'as well' are not easily overlooked after the first five hundred pages. In fact, the whole novel could have been comfortably reduced to five hundred pages, because bar a handful of unlikely plot twists and hackneyed romantic devices, nothing much really happens. Rosamunde Pilcher could learn a lot from Daphne Du Maurier!
An epic aga saga for readers who suffer from rose-tinted nostalgia. show less
There is a lot about this book that would normally make me hesitate. World War II setting and dual timeline, both I've been experiencing a lot of in recent books so wanted a switch from. Also, several unlikable and I redeemed characters. The main character faces many hardships. Somehow in all of this the experience of reading this book is utterly peaceful. The writing, almost subtle, about artistic, bohemian lifestyle, the landscape, simply transports you. You want to be there amount them show more soaking in their cultures and wrapped in people who love the beauty of art, nature, music, people in a pure and accessible way. For no other value then joy, beauty expression. I would reread for that experience alone. Rosamunde Pilcher was a new author to me but I'll defiantly be looking for more of her books. show less
Lists
Books Read in 2021 (10)
Carole's List (1)
Read in 2008 (1)
1970s (1)
Best Beach Reads (1)
Found Family (1)
BBC Big Read (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 138
- Also by
- 19
- Members
- 18,652
- Popularity
- #1,175
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 429
- ISBNs
- 1,224
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 64