Rosamunde Pilcher: Winter Solstice

By DONNA McINTYRE*

Here's another Pilcher saga - ideal for shutting out the world and curling up in a warm place on a dull, wintry day.

The writer gathers five people, all bearing some degree of emotional scarring, and deposits them in northern Scotland as Christmas approaches. Free spirit Elfrida Phipps (in her 60s), is an actress who has abandoned London for her "geriatric bolthole" in the English countryside. By a twist of fate, she ends up accompanying the newly widowed Oscar (also in his 60s, retired schoolmaster and organist) to the house he half-owns in Scotland.

More life events result in Elfrida's second-cousin, the heartbroken Carrie (30s), joining them with teenage niece Lucy in tow. Then tall, handsome Sam (late 30s) comes knocking on the door, only to find himself snowed-in and staying for the solstice.

Okay, so it's all a bit obvious who ends up with whom (even little Lucy isn't left being gooseberry), but with Pilcher's books the enjoyment is in the journey, not in reaching the destination.

And that's the appeal of Winter Solstice - just like a hot-water bottle, it is comforting, even if predictable.

The only disappointment is the lapse into oochy-smoochy prose of the first embrace when the attractive but romance-wary Carrie falls into the arms of the cuckolded businessman.

Hodder Moa Beckett

$22.95

* Donna McIntyre is a Herald subeditor.