Robin Pilcher novel explores family relationships
Rating: 3 Stars
by Gabrielle Pantera
“I went to visit a lovely old fellow who lived quite close in what was then a ramshackle old castle,” says The Long Way Home author Robin Pilcher. “I remember him turning up to church in his wheelchair, being looked after by a young Czech boy. They had a wonderful rapport and I thought it an interesting relationship to write about. The plot to every book starts with something very small, maybe quite insignificant, either a happening or a situation.”
The Long Way Home is a perceptive story of family and what it really means. The story moves back and forth in time telling the family’s story from Claire’s point of view. When Claire was a child of ten her mother married Leo, and they moved to Leo’s house in Scotland.
When Claire takes her gap year she meets and marries Art Barrington, a restaurant owner in New York. They have a very successful business and a daughter Violet. When Claire’s mother dies unexpectedly she and Art go back to Scotland for the funeral. Claire’s stepfather Leo is despondent at first, but perks up before Claire and Art depart. Then Leo falls and breaks his hip. Claire and Art go back to Scotland with Violet, while there they realize Leo is losing his memory. The Czech couple that’s been helping Leo are leaving soon, and Jonas, who has known Leo all his life and is helping him with his finances, is clearly hiding something. Claire can’t avoid seeing her first love Jonas. Why did he tell her to go away when they were teens, and what is he hiding?
Robin Pilcher’s mother is best-selling author Rosamunde Pilcher. Her romance novels include The Shell Seekers that sold over five million copies. Her stories became popular on German television after national TV station ZDF produced more than 70 of them.
“My first real creative thrill was writing screenplays,” says Pilcher. “While writing her book September, Ros was asked to produce a treatment for a screenplay by one of the big Hollywood production companies. She asked me if I could give her a hand, and so I had to put myself in her shoes, thinking about what she writes about…families, relationships and so on.”
The Long Way Home is set in Alloa, Scotland, a small river port town east of Glasgow. “Alloa is not the most popular tourist venue in Scotland,” says Pilcher. “But, it was ideal to use in the book, for reasons that will become clear once it’s been read.” Pilcher, who lives in nearby Dundee, needed to do little research about Alloa. “I did go over to Alloa for a day with my digital camera.”
With his old friend, Will Thomson, Pilcher runs a short story website called Shortbread. “Shortbread will become an integral part of the Spanish Foundation over the next year or two,” says Pilcher. For about four months a year, my wife, Kirsty, and I live in Andalucía in Spain, on the road between Seville and Lisbon in Portugal. Our house there is also a Foundation of Creative Writing and courses are run by other agencies during the year.”
The Long Way Home by Robin Pilcher. Hardcover, 304 pages, Publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, 1 edition (March 30, 2010). Language: English, ISBN: 9780312354350 $25.99
