Rosamunde Pilcher

Life is sweet. Beyond the pain, life continues to be sweet. The basics are still there. Beauty, food, and friendship, reservoirs of love and understanding. Later, possibly not yet, you are going to need others who will encourage you to make new beginnings. Welcome them. They will help you move on, to cherish happy memories and confront the painful ones with more than bitterness and anger.

- from Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher.

Hot coffee on an extremely cold morning; the cat purring next to you when you lie drowsily in bed; the smell of wild flowers from your new soap; the aroma of spices from your kitchen; the taste of your mother’s cooking—Pilcher’s books are as comforting as these.
I discovered her books at a time I needed them most. Maybe that’s why I am unable to be objective about them. I love her books unreservedly.
I have read all except two or three; I plan to read the rest soon. And, if possible, buy them all. I started with Winter Solstice, went on to Another View, and then to The Shell Seekers and then on and on…until I read all that were available at the library.
I have seen people use ‘romance’, ‘trash’ etc. to describe her writing. I disagree. It is certainly not trash. Romance? No. Her books have far more than romance in them. They have intricately woven human relationships, believable characters, and feelings of hope, happiness and comfort.
Pilcher’s books are not just about happiness. They are about tragedies and broken people and how they find second chances and solace.
Most of the leading characters are content in living a simple life—they live mostly in Scotland, Cornwall or the suburbs of London; holiday in France; wear faded cotton dresses; are good at either cooking, sewing, gardening or farming; have dogs as pets; have comfortable houses with a lived-in feel and are warm and welcoming…oh I can go on and on.
It is not just me. Each year, a quarter of a million Germans come to Cornwall, lured by her books.

Rosamunde Pilcher from Zimbio

A brief bio (based on information from many sites): Rosamunde Pilcher was born in Cornwall, England as Rosamunde Scott. She was married to Graham Pilcher, a war hero and jute industry executive, who died in 2009.
Her first novel was published by Mills and Boon in 1949, 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, and by 1965, dropped the pseudonym and was signing her own name to all of her novels.
The real breakthrough in Pilcher's career came in 1987, when she wrote the family saga, The Shell Seekers.
Pilcher retired from writing in 2000. She was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2002 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services to Literature.
She was also awarded the 2002 British Tourism Award together with Claus Beling, programme director of German network ZDF, for the positive effect her books and the TV movies had on tourism.
As more than 70 of her novels were made into TV movies by network ZDF, she has been very popular in Germany.