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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
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33607002899170 | Adult Fiction | PILCHER | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Author Notes
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 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)
Reviews (1)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Massive in size and vast in scope, Pilcher's latest entertainment seems destined to equal the extraordinary success of her previous novels (September, etc.) as it follows young Judith Dunbar through the tumultuous years before and during WWII. At 14, Judith is sent to boarding school in Cornwall when her mother and sister leave England to rejoin her father in Ceylon and then Singapore. Facing bleak holidays with her widowed, golf-obsessed Aunt Louise, the girl is overjoyed and a bit overwhelmed when she's often invited by classmate Loveday Carey-Lewis and her glamorous and wealthy family to spend time at their estate. When Aunt Louise dies in an auto accident, Judith finds herself an unexpected heiress with the funds necessary to move easily through the world of the Carey-Lewises and their friends, such as young physician Jeremy Wells. As Europe moves toward war, Judith embarks on a disastrous affair with Loveday's rakish brother, while Loveday falls for Gus Callendar, a Cambridge-educated engineer who longs to be an artist. War finds Judith enlisting in the Wrens and dealing with both an unfinished romance with Jeremy and tragic news about the fate of her family in Singapore; meanwhile, Loveday works her family farms and makes a rash decision about her future with Gus. War's end will bring unexpected tensions as well as a suitably romantic fate for both women. This is classy, lavish entertainment from a writer whose unpretentious prose always flows smoothly, never offends and offers literate pleasure. 850,000 first printing; $800,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; Readers Digest Condensed Book Club selection. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved