| Winter Solstice | 
 enlarge | Author: Rosamunde Pilcher
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  156 reviews
Sales Rank: 33174
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 504
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0312978383
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780312978389
ASIN: 0312978383
Publication Date: May 15, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Amazon.com Review
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
Product Description
The wait is over for the millions of readers who fell in love with Rosamunde Pilcher's compelling novels filled with riveting storylines and unforgettable characters. Now, New York Times bestselling author Rosamund Pilcher, has returned, giving her legion of fans another tale of love, loyalty, and rebirth...Elfrida Phipps, once on the London stage and retired at 62, never anticipates going off with a man. But after a devastating tragedy, church organist Oscar Blundell asks for her companionship.So with her brown-and-white dog in tow, Elfrida begins her journey, not knowing that joining her and Oscar at a rundown Victorian house in Scotland will be a young woman nursing a broken heart, a teenager escaping an unhappy home, and a stranger arriving during a snowstorm... Now these five, very different people form an unexpected circle of friends that will forever change their lives...AUTHORBIO: ROSAMUNDE PILCHER is the author of such worldwide bestsellers as The Shell Seekers, September, and Coming Home. She lives with her husband, Graham, and their dog, Daisy, in Perthshire, Scotland.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 151 more reviews...
 Even better than "The Shell Seekers" October 4, 2008
Yeah, it's chick-lit but not overly so and is simply a great read. Think Maeve Binchy but way better.
 Not her best... February 24, 2008
On a bad day, Rosamunde Pilcher is still a really good writer. But I have to say, it wasn't such a great day when she was writing this one. While books like this are all about happy endings, the twists and turns of the plot in this one are so obvious that halfway through, I could pretty much have told you the entire rest of the story. That might be ok if the characters themselves had any depth or complexity, but they're all pretty much stock characters... the one with the broken heart, the child with uncaring parents, and so on. You could take them out of any other novel, mix them up, and there you are. Not that I didn't enjoy the book... I did, but it's probably the worst of her full length novels. Start with something else; read this when you've run out of other ones.
All time favorite February 4, 2008
I have read all of Rosemunde Pilcher's books and this one is my most favorite. Mostly because the title character and I are of the same age and life situation. My little cottage resembles hers and I felt so closely related to her. I loved the story, and hope there will be more. I wonder if I moved to SW England if my life would be as hers. Such a memorable story.
A Scottish Christmas for the reader, with love December 20, 2007
I was completely captivated by Winter Solstice, so much so that I immediately started it all over again and enjoyed it the second time around as well. Winter Solstice tells the story of three loosely connected pairs of people, from three different generations who are thrown together over a snowbound Scottish Christmas. It has elements of romance, but the only couple who gets a happily ever after is the geriatric pair, so it's not a traditional romance. Oscar, the older man, has just suffered the tragic loss of his wife and young daughter. Elfrida, a retired actress, impulsively offers to help him relocate to a small town in Scotland, so far north that the sun rises at 8:45 AM, and by noon people plan their activities to be home before dark. Somehow, Pilcher makes this grim environment seem enchanting and magical. Elfrida's younger cousin and her niece invite themselves for Christmas, having no better option, and the stage is set for an unexpectedly festive holiday for Elfrida and Oscar.
Pilcher has a restrained British narrative that picks out little details of the setting like curtains and appliances and makes each one stand for a way of life. Her description of the Scottish landscape is clearly firsthand and done with tremendous affection. Similarly, her touch with Elfrida's dog Horace is light and the most realistic dog in fiction that I can recall. He's a character of his own without being anthropomorphized.
This is a great book to read in the month of December. If you enjoy Maeve Binchy or Mary Wesley, you'll like this one too. The only negative about Winter Solstice is that it's Pilcher's last book, as she retired after writing it. I may have read other books recently that were more literary, but few that were more pleasing.
One of those rare books I've read twice December 13, 2007
This book is a perfect cozy, gentle read, and I greatly enjoyed it. The characters are charming and easy to empathize with, the plot is interesting, the pace steady without being too fast or slow, and the ending is very satisfying. Pilcher has always had a wonderful talent for description, and creating characters that are easy to identify with. In this case, the romance between the older couple is touching as well as the one between the younger couple. The little girl is charming without being too treacly. All in all, a great book, especially around Christmas time.
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