Happy Christmas to all! I got some interesting looking books I hadn't heard of, and some book tokens so I can stock up.
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Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. I'm sure well known to many people here. Five people, all tenuously connected and lonely or escaping personal tragedy, end up spending Christmas together in a large house in the Highlands.
I've been sick over Christmas and read this whenever I had a chance to lie down, often with a similarly sick child on top of me, and it was perfect for that.
There are about 300 pages of very complicated backstories for all the characters where you have to learn about their siblings, cousins, friends, friends' children and ex-partners. Then once they get to Scotland almost nothing happens. There's a chapter about someone buying a toaster. There's another where someone has a cold. Still I loved the intricate detail of what they all ate, how they decorated the house, and what Christmas presents they all bought each other.
I found it impossible to place in a time period. At first I thought 70s, then someone mentioned a computer. Then I thought 80s until someone mentioned a mobile phone (though only one character had one). Apparently it was published in 2000 but it didn't feel like the 90s at all.
It's an extraordinary world where the women all wear velvet trousers and work in the ski industry or for auction houses, and the men wear tweed, have opinions about whiskey, and own property in West London. Everyone claims to have no money at all but the teenagers go around saying things like 'I do enjoy my day school, but I think it would be tremendous fun to go to a comprehensive.'
In short, ridiculous book, loved every word of it. I don't think I could face reading any more of her though.