Penelope Keeling knows how to live life to the fullest and I absolutely adore her! She grasps those things that matter most in life – the comfort of a home, the security of a loving mother, the laughter of friends and family, the feel of soil and the beauty of the outdoors, the enticing smells of home-cooked meals, and the allure of a splendid painting. Autumn winds, whipping the bay to a scud of white-caps, brought with them, not cold, but a surging sense of vitality…' Sun after rain turned cobbled streets blue as fish scales, dazzling to the eye.

The last of the leaves dropped from the trees, and the bare branches made lace against pale skies. 'The most ordinary of prospects caused her to stop and stare. Two years later, she was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

She retired from writing in 2000 following publication of Winter Solstice. In 1996, her novel Coming Home won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by Romantic Novelists' Association. In 1955, she also began writing under her married name Rosamunde Pilcher, by 1965 she her own name to all of her novels. She published a further ten novels under that name. In 1949, her first book, a romance novel, was published by Mills & Boon, under the pseudonym Jane Fraser. Her son, Robin Pilcher, is also a novelist. They had two daughters and two sons, and fourteen grandchildren. They moved to Dundee, Scotland, where she remained until her death in 2019. On 7 December 1946, she married Graham Hope Pilcher, a war hero and jute industry executive who died in March 2009. From 1943 through 1946, Pilcher served with the Women's Naval Service. She began writing when she was seven and published her first short story when she was 18. Clare's Polwithen and Howell's School Llandaff before going on to Miss Kerr-Sanders' Secretarial College. Just before her birth her father was posted in Burma, her mother remained in England. Rosamunde Scott was born on 22 September 1924 in Lelant, Cornwall, England, UK, daughter of Helen and Charles Scott, a British commander.

The shell seekers by rosamunde pilcher