In the 1980s Terry Wogan had a very popular chat show on BBC 1. I remember one episode where he was interviewing the author Rosamunde Pilcher about her book The Shell Seekers. The book was an amazing and unexpected success, selling millions of copies around the world. Wogan asked the author how much money she had made from the sales and she turned on him vehemently. ‘How rude,’ she said. ‘Did your mother not teach you that to make comments about money or personal appearance was impertinent?’ Wogan looked crushed and apologetic. ‘I’m sorry,’ he offered. ‘Yes she did but I thought it was worth a try!’
Rosamunde Pilcher published The Shell Seekers in 1987 but she had been writing for very many years before that, sometimes under a pseudonym and mostly producing short stories for womens’ magazines and lots of work for Mills and Boon. She was well into her sixties when she hit the jackpot with a sizeable book that topped the bestseller list in New York and was a phenomenal and surprising sensation in Germany.
It is of course impossible to tell what makes one book take flight and grab the public’s imagination whilst others languish on the shelves or never make it to publication at all. In the case of the Shell Seekers I personally feel that it is such compulsive reading partially because it does have a large chunk of autobiography about it. I have always longed to meet Penelope Keeling, the main character around whom the whole story revolves. Yes of course I know she is fictional but if the author was weaving the plot full of the threads and strands of her own life then no wonder Penelope is this rounded, full, satisfying character.
Essentially, this is a family story set firmly in the last century, either side of the Second World War. You just know that Rosamunde Pilcher is familiar with Chelsea and the bohemian feel of Oakley Street, with the honey coloured villages of the Cotswolds and with St Ives in Cornwall, which becomes her lightly disguised seaside town of Porthkerris. I do enjoy a strong sense of place and this probably explains why I rarely get on well with fantasy.
This is the second book that I have read recently both written and set in the 1980s and both with central female characters in their early sixties. The women have been portrayed as old and I think that is interestingly telling about our attitude to age and how it has changed over the last 40 years. I don’t think we would consider people old now at that age and of course the health of those in later life has improved enormously. So these novels almost become social history, very much of their time.
Anyway, back to Penelope Keeling, the mother of three very different children, all grown and taking different life paths. In their own ways none of them have much time for her although they would be horrified to be told this. They are though very concerned with the Victorian pictures she has inherited from her artist father and which have seemingly come into vogue again. Son and daughter, Noel and Nancy, think they should be sold ‘for the good of the family,’ obviously meaning they would like some of the money please but second daughter Olivia tries to remonstrate that Penelope is not feeble and can make her own decisions.
Into the middle of this tricky, uncomfortable family circle arrive two young people, a gardener and a companion for Penelope. They have no knowledge of the family history or the difficult entanglements and just enjoy the open generosity of their employer in her lovely Cotswold cottage with a much loved garden. Inevitably there are suspicions and jealousies that arise that cause misunderstanding and general upset.
Penelope, feeling older than she should and having a possible health problem wants to visit Cornwall and see the people and places of her earlier life. She begins to feel that this visit is urgent and in turn asks each of her children to accompany her. None of them feel able or willing to do so and eventually it is the two young outsiders, Danus and Antonia who drive down to Porthkerris with her. It is during this latter part of the story that we learn about much of Penelope’s early life and the events of the Second World War. The reader understands now how much of the story came to pass and we can make sense of the feelings of the characters. It is quite an interesting and clever way to structure the story and definitely makes you keep turning the pages.
The Shell Seekers of the title is Penelope’s prized possession, a large picture painted by her father and, to her, a symbol of her unconventional life and bohemian upbringing. She needs to know it will be safe and loved once she is gone. The much desired Cornish visit is part of resolving this issue to her satisfaction.
This is a perfectly paced story, deeply pleasing and beautifully written. I love it.