Winter Solstice (Windsor Selection) - Hardcover

Rosamunde Pilcher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 075401472X ISBN 13: 9780754014720

Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C, 2000

Synopsis

Ten Cassettes, 17 hrs.
Performance by Lisa Burgett

The December solstice is a turning point. For some, it represents a time of darkness, the shortest day of the year. But for others, this event-just a few days before Christmas-is about hope, renewal and rebirth. In a story both deceptively simple and effortlessly complex, Rosamunde Pilcher brings together five very different people, ranging in age from mid-sixties to teenagers, each of whom must confront very different challenges or losses.

When Efrida Phipps abandons London for a quaint country village, she settles in quickly. She has a tiny cottage, her faithful dog, Horace, and the friendship of good neighbors, Oscar, Gloria and their little girl. Perhaps, at last, she can exorcise the pain of the past and find peace.

But it is not to be.

Tragedy upsets Elfrida's newfound tranquility and she takes refuge in a rambling house in the North of Scotland called Corrydale. Almost like a magnet, Corrydale attracts various waifs and strays, each of them escaping difficult personal pasts. As the holiday approach and the weather turns foul, it seems a perfect recipe for disaster.

But somehow the group proves to be greater than the sun of its ill-suited parts, and as the solstice passes and Christmas approaches, the healing power of love on even the most troubled human spirit begins to work its magic.
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 name--still she finds herself lonely.

About this title

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

From the Publisher:

10 1.5-hour cassettes

About this edition

• Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 075401472X
• ISBN 13: 9780754014720
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 632