This book is way outside of my normal reading, and over 500 pages long, but I fell in love with it from the beginning and was immediately immersed in the story. It is the epitome of a comfort read... at least for me. And it was set at winter solstice and has a focus on Christmas, a big plus.
We meet Elfrida Phipps, formerly an actress on the London stage, at age 62. Two years previously she retired, moved to Dipton in Hampshire, England and bought a small cottage. Elfrida soon encounters Gloria and Oscar Blundell and their 12-year-old daughter Francesca and they all quickly become good friends. Oscar is 67 and much older than Gloria.
Elfrida goes off for an extended visit with a cousin and his much younger wife and their young children. When she gets back from her month's visit, she finds that Oscar's wife and child were killed in an automobile accident, and that Oscar has no place to live, unless he goes to an old folks' home nearby. She offers to help get him moved and settled in Creagan, Scotland where he owns half of an Estate House which used to belong to his grandmother.
Shortly thereafter they are joined at the Estate House by three other people who need a place to stay at Christmas: Carrie, a young woman related to Elfrida; Lucy, her 14-year-old niece; and Sam, a businessman who is in the area to help rebuild a company that had fallen on hard times.
My Thoughts:
- The characters are all interesting. I got to know the main characters and care for them, but all of the peripheral characters had back stories. I will admit that the main characters are almost too good to be true, but that did not bother me enough to spoil my overall enjoyment of the story. (A good number of reviewers don't agree with my assessment of those characters.)
- Pilcher's writing style appealed to me. Each chapter is titled with the name of one of the five main characters and looks at the story from their point of view. She reveals the details of the issues that they are dealing with gradually throughout the book. The depictions of the Scottish countryside and the weather in November and December in this part of Scotland were wonderful.
- There are many mentions of books: reading them, buying them, books in homes, bookshops. I love that in a novel.
- The ending was exactly what I wanted it to be, and when I finished it, I was sorry that it was over.
This was Rosemary Pilcher's last novel, and I don't know how it compares to her earlier books, but I will be looking for another one to read someday.
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Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2015 (orig. pub. 2000)
Length: 520 pages
Format: Trade paperback
Setting: Mostly Scotland.
Genre: Fiction
Source: I purchased this book in October 2023.
16 comments:
Hello TracyK,
Long time! I had to comment because Rosumnde Pilcher is one of my favorite writers. I loved September and The Shell Seekers the most. Hope all is well with you and Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Keishon
Keishon, how wonderful to hear from you. Thanks for those two suggestions for other books by Pilcher to read. I was suprised and happy to enjoy the book so much.
I wish you a Merry Christmas also, and hope the New Year brings good things for you.
Your review of this book reminds me I want to read it; it sounds like a perfect Christmas read.
There are a lot of people who just love this. And there are parts that I did as well. But I just could.not.bear the death of that poor man's family.
Terra, it is a very good Christmas read. I like how they are all helpful and thoughtful to each other even though they have their own concerns too.
Nan, you have a very valid point about Oscar's loss of his family. Not many people have to deal with losing more than one family member at a time. And I do understand about how one element of a story can affect your enjoyment of it. That happened to me with I Capture the Castle.
Glad you enjoyed the book. Merry Christmas and Happy 2024 to you and your family, Tracy.
I really like the setup for this one, Tracy! And it is interesting to see how characters bond with each other when all are in some sort of need (even if it isn't physical need). I can see why you enjoyed this. Merry Christmas to you and your family! All the best for 2024!
Thanks, Neeru. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family. I hope you have lots of good reading in 2024.
Margot, this was the perfect book for the season. And such a nice setting.
Merry Christmas to you and your family and your dogs.
She was a great author. It is fascinating to me that she was writing slim pleasant but forgettable romances and then something - her editor? her inner creativity? something else? - caused her to write a big book, The Shell Seekers, that was more of a family saga with multidimensional characters and complicated lives and no guaranteed happy endings, and was a huge bestseller. After that she wrote three more "big books" of which Winter Solstice was the last. I have not reread it since it first came out but I really enjoyed it and am glad you did.
A few years ago there was a movie called Wild Mountain Thyme and I thought, Hmm, if someone was going to do a movie of a Pilcher novel starring a well-known actress such as Emily Blunt, why that one (apart from the memorable title). It turned out to be completely unrelated! I felt cheated, even though it wasn't one of her best books. I guess there was a movie of Winter Solstice but it never crossed my radar.
Pilcher's son has tried to cash in on her success but I read one of his books and was not overly impressed.
Constance, Thanks for all that information about Pilcher's books. It sounds like I should stick to the later books. I do have an ebook copy of The Empty House, which she published in 1973.
I read this one back in 2016 and I did enjoy it, I've read quite a few of her books. It was when my childhood German penpal visited us some years ago that I realised that Pilcher was a lot more popular in Germany than she was in this country. They definitely made a film of The Shell Seekers, but presumably that is in German. Happy New Year to you all - when it comes.
Hi Tracy, Winter Solstice seems like the perfect book for the Christmas Season that one can still read in January and I have heard of this author who was very popular some time back and I am putting this book on my list.
Hope you and your family have a great New Year!
Katrina, I am glad I finally tried one of Pilcher's books, and glad that it was so good since it was a pretty long book. That is interesting about her popularity in Germany.
The New Year will be upon us in 2 hours. I am sure we will hear some fireworks but they usually don't bother us too much. Have a good 2024 with lots of reading and gardening eventually.
Kathy, I think Winter Solstice would be a good read any time of year. There is a lot of talk of Christmas, but it fits in well with the story. The cold weather and the bad weather in Scotland is interesting to read about. For once, the majority of the characters are nice, but not in a bland way.
Tomorrow, my husband is cooking Hoppin' John (our version) and we will watch another movie. We have had a Star Trek theme this year for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. My brother, who has always lived in the South, had not heard of Hoppin' John, but then I don't think my mother ever cooked it.
I hope you have a great New Year too.
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