Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice
by Rosamunde Pilcher

Winter Solstice
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Book Summary Information

Author: Rosamunde Pilcher
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-05-15
ISBN: 0312978383
Number of pages: 504
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Book Reviews of Winter Solstice

Book Review: Perfect Read During Winter Solstice
Summary: 5 Stars

It is no secret that I consider Rosamunde Pilcher one of my favorite authors as so many other readers do too. From the first book I read by her, The Shell Seekers, to Winter Solstice the last book I still had to read, this author never fails to entrance me. While I lover her tales set in England and Scotland and her descriptions of places I feel I know so well, it is her characters who reach out to me and set her books apart from others. Strong and wise women like Penelope from The Shell Seekers, Violet from September, Judith from Coming Home and now Elfrida from Winter Solstice are among my very favorite characters from Ms, Pilcher's books and ones I wish I had as friends. And not only does she write about women characters one can't forget but especially in Winter Solstice, she introduces her readers to Oscar and Sam who are taken under Elfrida's very capable wings.

The time is right before Christmas when Elfrida and Oscar, two friends travel to Scotland. Oscar has suffered a tragedy and in addition must now find some other place to live. The house which he inherited with a cousin long ago will serve as a temporary refuge for Oscar since he knows few people in the area and hasn't been back in almost 50 years. Neither he nor Elfrida plan on celebrating the holidays but then again they didn't expect Elfrida's cousin to join them with her teenage niece or Sam, an Englishman assigned to a new job in the area. There are coincidences in this book, other endearing characters like the local minister, his wife and son and finally there is another inheritance from a relatively unknown person which will not only alter Oscar and Elfrida's lives but all of the main characters from this book. Unfortunately this book went by way too quickly and as it ended I not only shed tears of happiness for the good fortunes of these characters but also because this was the last book I had left to read by Pilcher for the first time.

I found it rather interesting that while I read all of Ms. Pilcher's older books after The Shell Seekers, the books she wrote after her large bestseller that eluded me for sometime. Although I bought each one as soon as it was published, I couldn't seem to get into them. I'm not sure I worried that no other large book by Ms. Pilcher could entrance me as much as The Shell Seekers or if I was simply saving these books so that I would always have something to read by Pilcher for the first time. But this was the year that must have felt Pilcher deprived because not only did I read Winter Solstice but September
and Coming Home as well. Looking back on this, one Pilcher book just seemed to lead to another and who could fail to be captivated by Pilcher's world when they are in the mood to be swept away by this wonderful author. And while I still think it will always be the first book I read by her which will be my favorite I have never read a book by Ms. Pilcher that I didn't enjoy. Some I just enjoyed more than others. And certainly Winter Solstice is among this group.

If you have never read anything by this author run and either buy or borrow one of her books. And if like me you've now read everything she's written place those books carefully upon your shelves and wait for the day when you feel a reread is a must. I know that whether it is the winter solstice like now or a hot day in the summer, the season is always right to spend time with Rosamunde Pilcher and one of her books.


Summary of Winter Solstice

In Winter Solstice Rosamunde Pilcher brings her readers into the lives of five very different people....

Elfrida Phipps, once of London's stage, moved to the English village of Dibton in hopes of making a new life for herself. Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life -- shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name -- still she finds herself lonely.

Oscar Blundell gave up his life as a musician in order to marry Gloria. They have a beautiful daughter, Francesca, and it is only because of their little girl that Oscar views his sacrificed career as worthwhile.

Carrie returns from Australia at the end of an ill-fated affair with a married man to find her mother and aunt sharing a home and squabbling endlessly. With Christmas approaching, Carrie agrees to look after her aunt's awkward and quiet teenage daughter, Lucy, so that her mother might enjoy a romantic fling in America.

Sam Howard is trying to pull his life back together after his wife has left him for another. He is without home and without roots, all he has is his job. Business takes him to northern Scotland, where he falls in love with the lush, craggy landscape and set his sights on a house.

It is the strange rippling effects of a tragedy that will bring these five characters together in a large, neglected estate house near the Scottish fishing town of Creagan.

It is in this house, on the shortest day of the year, that the lives of five people will come together and be forever changed. Rosamunde Pilcher's long-awaited return to the page will warm the hearts of readers both old and new. Winter Solstice is a novel of love, loyalty and rebirth.

Rosamunde Pilcher's novel, despite its chilly setting, will warm the hearts of her growing army of loyal fans. Winter Solstice has all the familiar trademarks of a Pilcher saga, spun in her inimitable, homey, beguiling style. The story is told, chapter by chapter, from the perspectives of an eclectic array of characters. Former actress Elfrida--not very good by her own admission--leaves London for a geriatric bolthole in the country where she meets retired schoolmaster and organist, Oscar. Meanwhile, Carrie (Elfrida's second cousin), returns to London from Austria where she had a brilliant career in the tourist industry, only to find her niece, 14-year-old Lucy, sadly neglected by her selfish mother and equally spoiled grandmother. Finally, handsome Sam is recalled from New York by his company chairman to revive an ailing Scottish textile mill.

As one character after another must learn to live with their losses, they find themselves collectively spirited northwards, from Sussex to Scotland, by way of Cornwall. And, as events unfurl, slowly, surely, but inevitably, those in need find solace in unexpected places. While her characterizations are generally carefully crafted and entirely rounded, Pilcher's greatest strengths lie in her natural, easy narratives of everyday life and her thoroughly researched and captivating descriptions of scenery and surroundings. --Carey Green

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