Is Rosamunde Pilcher aimed at a particular age group or demographic ?

[Everyonesliverlovesparvo]

Listening to one of her audiobooks ‘Winter Solstice’. Really enjoying it as a nice relaxing listen but probably only a 1/4 of the way through.
I’m mid 50s but it seems to be written in a quaint style more for folk a bit older than me. Almost twee but that’s probably not the right word to be honest and I’m wondering whether it’s the reader’s diction rather than the actual book. Normally I read/listen to psychological thrillers by authors like Lisa Jewell, Louise Candlish and Sophie Hannah so very much less cosy and far more gritty ! I guess it’s essentially the trials and tribulations of stinking rich folk, gentile types fallen on hard times and the working class salt of the earth. Are all her books like this ?

Weren't her books written donkeys years ago?
They might seem old fashioned and "quaint" simply because of the era when they were written?

It’s of its time.
I used to read them as a teenager, they were politely formal and quite comforting.
my favourite is called Under Gemini (I think?).

I was a teenager when I loved Coming Home

Agree they are comforting. I read Winter Solstice a few years ago and found the character of the 13/14 year old girl like something from a (very sheltered) hundred years ago.

I love Rosamunde Pilcher - I find myself Coming home and Winter Solstice most years, especially Winter Solstice in December!
They're very twee and comforting, I find Fern Britton’s Cornwall books comforting in a similar but less twee way!

I've read Winter Solstice and The Shell Seekers recently. Winter Solstice was dull, irritating and twee. The Shell Seekers was better but I won't be looking for a third book by her.
The characters are so old for their age: women in their early 60s behaving like they're 90...... And fentestically middle class- oh there's a lovely little man who lives in a hut at the tip!
It's all about the family relationships and dynamics - there's a lot of bacon frying-and the characters are at least two dimensional.

Oh I love September and Shell Seekers!
Winter Solstice was written in 2000 so not that old!

@PJ04JCW I had a quick Google - her last book was published 2000, before that 1995.
That's old 😂
I mean 2000 is almost a quarter of a century ago !

Yes comforting is a good description. I can imagine the main character dressing in Seasalt for some weird reason lol.

There’s always a wonderful woman who cares for the main male character and is an absolute treasure. Always discreet but with no life of her own, and forever pulling warm plum cakes or similar from the oven. That’s the bit I think I most envy about her books tbh!

Love her too

Books are so lovely - of their time

Resurrecting my old name in homage to Coming Home!

I love Rosamunde Pilcher - Another View's the first one I read, and it's still my favourite.

Also love Betty Neels, for any other vintage romance enjoyers out there! She's another quaint, of her time author.

I'm in my late 40s, read them as a teen and found them twee then. My grandmother, who was born in 1918, found a couple of scenes in Shellseekers a bit racy. Times have changed quite significantly!
They are still some of my favourite comfort reads.

They feel eternally 1972 to me. Comforting as others say.

Apparently incredibly popular in Germany where they have all been adapted for TV and are endlessly repeated.

Visited a stately home in Cornwall which had been a filming site- and used the money from filming and the subsequent onslaught of German tourists to renovate the whole house.

I read Winter Solstice around Christmas time every year, pure escapism. Also loved Coming Home and The Shellseekers. They are old-fashioned, comfort reads, really enjoy them if I am in the right mood.

She is of her time, I just checked Wikipedia. brought up in Cornwall late 1920s, she started writing in 1930s. Young adult when WW2 started, and served in WRNS. That was a very old fashioned organisation then I think.

Love the Shell Seekers and September.

Comfort food both in a literary, and literal, way.

Didn't care for Coming Home or Winter Solstice.

I find them similar to Joanna Trollope

I read the Shell Seekers over and over as a teenager! Might dig it out!

I thought winter solstice was terrible. If I remember rightly her friend lost his wife and only child in summer, a few weeks later she was in his bed y by Xmas they were married?

I think coming home is a wonderful book. Not twee at all - it’s mostly about WW2 and there is some real suffering depicted. I haven’t enjoyed her other books as much though.

I like them even though the do all seem to have the same basic cast of characters- posh/old money but now a little shabby older lady who wears lots of floaty clothing and scarves; bustling rosy cheeked working class woman who “does” for her; impossibly elegant younger types with gazelle-like limbs.

And, of course, scrubbed oak tables in their lovely kitchens.

@AtomicBlondeRose - as well as the plum puddings, there always seemed to be gallons of hot water for baths at all hours of the day and night in otherwise rustic houses. And no matter how long the tedious drive to get there was, there was always time for a hot bath before dinner (made by said treasure!). That's my abiding memory of RP books.

I love that I'm in my 30s but a fan of both Rosamund Pilcher and Seasalt, partly because they both remind me of my mother. Coming Home is a favourite of mine.