Rosamunde Pilcher

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Rosamunde Scott Pilcher OBE
BornRosamunde Scott
(1924-09-22) 22 September 1924 (age 99)
Lelant, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Pen nameJane Fraser,
Rosamunde Pilcher
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityBritish
Period1949–2000
GenreRomance
Notable awardsRoNA Award
SpouseGraham Hope Pilcher (1946-2009)
Children4

Rosamunde Pilcher, OBE (née Scott; born 22 September 1924) is a British writer of several short-stories and 28 romance novels and mainstream women's fiction from 1949 to 2000, when she retired from writing. Early in her career she was also published under the pen name Jane Fraser. Her son is the writer Robin Pilcher.

Biography

Personal life

Born Rosamunde E. M. L. Scott on 22 September 1924 in Lelant, Cornwall, daughter of Helen and Charles Scott, a British commander. Just before her birth her father was posted in Burma, her mother remained in England.[1] She attended the School of St. Clare in Penzance and Howell's School Llandaff before going on to Miss Kerr-Sanders' Secretarial College.[2] She began writing when she was seven, and published her first short story when she was 18.[3]

From 1943 through 1946, Pilcher served with the Women's Royal Naval Service. On 7 December 1946, she married Graham Hope Pilcher,[2] a war hero and jute industry executive who died in March 2009.[4] They moved to Dundee, Scotland, where she still lives today. They had two daughters and two sons, and fourteen grandchildren.[5] Her son, Robin Pilcher, is also a novelist.[6]

Writing career

In 1949, Pilcher's first book, a romance novel, was published by Mills and Boon, under the pseudonym Jane Fraser. She published a further ten novels under that name. In 1955, she also began writing under her real name with Secret to Tell. By 1965 she had dropped the pseudonym and was signing her own name to all of her novels.[2]

At the beginning writing was a refuge from her daily life. She claims that writing saved her marriage. The real breakthrough in Pilcher's career came in 1987, when she wrote the family saga, The Shell Seekers. Since then her books have made her one of the more successful contemporary female authors.

One of her most famous works, The Shell Seekers, focuses on Penelope Stern Keeling, an elderly British woman who relives her life in flashbacks, and on her relationship with her adult children. Keeling's life was not extraordinary, but it spans "a time of huge importance and change in the world."[3] The novel describes the everyday details of what life during World War II was like for some of those who lived in Britain.[3] The Shell Seekers sold more than five million copies worldwide and was adapted for the stage by Terence Brady and Charlotte Bingham.[5]

In 1996, her novel Coming Home won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by Romantic Novelists' Association.[7]

Pilcher retired from writing in 2000.[2] Two years later she was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).[8]

TV adaptation

Her books are especially popular in Germany because the national TV station ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) has produced more than 100 of her stories for TV starting with "Day of the Storm". These TV films are some of the most popular programmes on ZDF. Both ZDF programme director Dr. Claus Beling and Rosamunde Pilcher were awarded the British Tourism Award in 2002 for the positive effect the books and the TV versions had on Cornwall and Devon tourism within the UK. Notable film locations include Prideaux Place, an Elizabethan Manor with extensive grounds in Padstow; the 9th century stately home in St Germans, Port Eliot; The Duke of Cornwall Hotel, an 1863 Victorian Gothic building in Plymouth; and much of the coast line of Chapel Porth. However, a number of films whose story setting is Cornwall are in fact filmed elsewhere.

DVD releases

Rosamunde Pilcher's Coming Home, Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice are all available on DVD in the UK, distributed by Acorn Media UK.

Partial bibliography

Novels

As Jane Fraser

  • Half-Way To The Moon (1949)
  • The Brown Fields (1951)
  • Dangerous Intruder (1951)
  • Young Bar (1952)
  • A Day Like Spring (1953)
  • Dear Tom (1954)
  • Bridge of Corvie (1956)
  • A Family Affair (1958)
  • The Keeper's House (1963)
  • A Long Way from Home (1963)

As Rosamunde Pilcher

  • A Secret to Tell (1955)
  • On My Own (1965)
  • Sleeping Tiger (1967)
  • Another View (1969)
  • The End of Summer (1971)
  • Snow in April (1972)
  • The Empty House (1973)
  • The Day of the Storm (1975)
  • Under Gemini (1976)
  • Wild Mountain Thyme (1978)
  • The Carousel (1982)
  • Voices in Summer (1984)
  • The Shell Seekers (1988)
  • September (1990)
  • Coming Home (1995)
  • The Key (1996)
  • Shadows (1999)
  • Winter Solstice (2000)

Omnibus

  • The Day of the Storm / The End of the Summer (1979)
  • Three Books: Wild Mountain Thyme / The Shell Seekers / Under Gemini (1989)
  • Under Gemini / The Empty House / The Day of the Storm / Another View/ Boxed Set (1990)
  • Wild Mountain Thyme / Sleeping Tiger / The End of Summer / Snow in April / Boxed Set (1990)
  • Collection: Wild Mountain Thyme / Empty House / End of the Summer (1991)
  • The Shell Seekers / Wild Mountains Thyme / The Day of the Storm (1994)
  • Three Complete Novels: September / Voices in Summer / The Carousel (1995)
  • The Shell Seekers Collection: The Shell Seekers / Snow in April / Another View (1996)
  • A New Collection of Three Complete Books: Snow in April / Wild Mountain Thyme / Flowers in the Rain (1997)
  • A Third Collection of Three Complete Novels: The Empty House / The Day of the Storm / Under Gemini (1999)
  • Another View / End of Summer (2000)
  • End of Summer / September (2003)
  • The Blue Bedroom / The White Birds (2005)

Collections

  • The Blue Bedroom and Other Stories (1985)
  • Flowers in the Rain: And Other Stories (1991) Sequel to The Blue Bedroom (above) – NEL (New English Library – UK)
  • The Blackberry Day: And Other Stories (1992)
  • World of Rosamunde Pilcher (1995)
  • Christmas with Rosamunde Pilcher (1998)

References

  1. ^ Vineta Colby (1995), World authors, 1985-1990, H.W. Wilson, p. 970
  2. ^ a b c d Bruns, Ann (11 August 2000). "Biography: Rosamunde Pilcher". Bookreporter.com. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  3. ^ a b c Binchy, Maeve (7 February 1988). "War and Change Come to Temple Pudley". New York Times. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  4. ^ "Army Obituaries: Graham Pilcher". The Daily Telegraph. 3 May 2009. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  5. ^ a b Butt, Riaza (25 February 2004). "Pilcher's winning formula". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  6. ^ "Talking with Robin Pilcher". AudioFile. April–May 2004. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  7. ^ Romantic Novel of the Year, 12 July 2012
  8. ^ "Honours in the arts world". BBC News. 31 December 2001. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
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