Rosamunde Pilcher

My reading stack is growing faster than I'm able to read right now. Part of this is my mother's fault. About all she is able to do these days is read and she loves a good story. I ran her through ALL of the Dorothea Benton Frank books, which she loved. They sort of reminded her of another author she had read in the past; after much discussion and internet searching, I figured out it was Rosamunde Pilcher she was talking about. So I started gathering Pilcher books for her. The local library only had two or three and she was thrilled to read those again, especially The Shell Seekers.

She insisted that I read The Shell Seekers. INSISTED. "If you liked reading that girl from South Carolina [Dorothea Benton Frank], you'll love The Shell Seekers!" So after I finished whatever I was reading at the time, I read the book - mostly because she kept asking me about it. Well, I loved it. What a storyteller Pilcher is!

After I finished that one, mom had finished Coming Home and insisted I read THAT one. "You'll like it better than The Shell Seekers!" I didn't think I could, but by golly, I do. The book is 993 pages - one of those long, epic stories you just get lost in. Pilcher technically falls into the category of "romance fiction" or "women's fiction" and I'm the first one to jump up and say "I HATE romance novels!" These are not the old bodice-busters, by any means. They are beautifully crafted stories of folks that live in Scotland or England and most seem to be set around World War II. Pilcher is drawing on her own experience for this. She was a homefront volunteer during the War and now lives in Scotland. She writes of beautiful homes and gardens, is incredibly descriptive and detailed, and creates characters that you feel like you know or have met before. She also details what it was like to live during World War II. She's truly a gifted storyteller. You can't just sit down and write like she does unless you have a gift.

For Christmas I have obtained a hard-to-find new hardback copy of The World of Rosamunde Pilcher to give to mom. She will love it.

By now Mom has read most all of Pilcher's books, some of which I had to hunt down on Amazon as used or out of print. This means that now I have a stack of ten or so Pilcher paperbacks waitiing on me whenever I finish Coming Home. This is in addition to my newly arrived Stephen King, Ira Stoll, and Patricia Cornwell. I love having stacks of books waiting for me! That and the upcoming two week vacation makes me one happy girl.