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Rosamunde Pilcher

Coming Home Mass Market Paperback – August 15, 1996

by Rosamunde Pilcher (Author)

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Against the backdrop of an elegant Cornwall mansion before World War II and a vast continent-spanning canvas during the turbulent war years, this involving story tells of an extraordinary young woman's coming of age, coming to grips with love and sadness, and in every sense of the term, coming home...

In 1935, Judith Dunbar is left behind at a British boarding school when her mother and baby sister go off to join her father in Singapore. At Saint Ursula's, her friendship with Loveday Carey-Lewis sweeps her into the privileged, madcap world of the British aristocracy, teaching her about values, friendship, and wealth. But it will be the drama of war, as it wrenches Judith from those she cares about most, that will teach her about courage...and about love.

Teeming with marvelous, memorable characters in a novel that is a true masterpiece, Rosamunde Pilcher's Coming Home is a book to be savored, reread, and cherished forever.

Print length

992 pages
Language

English
Publisher

St. Martin's Paperbacks
Publication date

August 15, 1996
Dimensions

4.11 x 1.59 x 6.89 inches
ISBN-10

9780312958121
ISBN-13

978-0312958121
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Rosamunde Pilcher
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.”
Highlighted by 152 Kindle readers
It was just that she needed time to reassemble and reorientate a personal sense of identity.
Highlighted by 125 Kindle readers
Love, without the strength of faith, and trust, was not much good to anybody.
Highlighted by 114 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set around the time of WW II, Pilcher's tale of youthful friendship and romance spent 16 weeks on PW's bestseller list.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Rosamunde Pilcher's most satisfying story since The Shell Seekers.” ―Chicago Tribune

“Captivating...The best sort of book to come home to...Readers will undoubtedly hope Pilcher comes home to the typewriter again soon.” ―New York Daily News

“Pure, old-fashioned pleasure. I loved every minute of it.” ―Cosmopolitan

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0312958129
Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Paperbacks; Reprint edition (August 15, 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 992 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780312958121
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312958121
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.11 x 1.59 x 6.89 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #506,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,446 in Historical British & Irish Literature
- #6,273 in Women's Friendship Fiction
- #9,458 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
2,744 ratings

About the author

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Rosamunde Pilcher

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Rosamunde Pilcher, OBE (née Scott; born 22 September 1924) is a British writer of several short-stories and 28 romance novels and mainstream women's fiction from 1949 to 2000, when she retired from writing. Early in her career she was also published under the pen name Jane Fraser. Her son is the writer Robin Pilcher.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		15%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Nancy Wyatt

Home is where her ❤️ Is!

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2019

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I read the Kindle edition of this book and feel that most errors someone else reported here have been cleaned up! That said, I can tell you this is probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. I’m sad that I’m done reading it!

This is the second book by Rosamund Pilcher that I’ve read and it’s set in Cornwall as well. The first being The Shell Seekers which I enjoyed very much, too. Her characters and the descriptions of the homes and places are so well developed that I felt as if I knew everyone and I could visualize all of the beautiful homes, the towns and the sea. I was interested in the time period which was a couple years prior to WWII and through the war and to the close. It’s approximately a 10 year span in the life of Judith Dunbar, who’s family (mother and 4-year old sister) move abroad to join her father in Ceylon and then on to Singapore. Judith’s only contact with her immediate family is by letters. But she gains so much by the relationships with her friend Loveday Carey-Lewis and the entire Carey-Lewis family (and many friends of theirs). Some very surprising things occur to Judith early in the book when she’s living at break with her aunt (her father’s sister) and she suffers a shocking incident that concerns an old very disgusting man!

If you enjoy a well developed novel and have an interest in England as well as WWII, you will truly love this book. It’s long, but once you are done reading it you will sadly miss it and the characters! I highly recommend it.

26 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Coming Home is my all time favorite book. I read it when it first came ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2017

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Coming Home is my all time favorite book. I read it when it first came out, put it away and re read a few years ago. Have it in paperback hard cover and on my nook. About what it was like for a young woman growing up and coming of age during WW2. Zinc England. This was during my mother and father's time. No one writes the way Rosamund Pilcher does, although I have managed to find a few such as Marcia Willett and Maeve Binchy. Would give anything to find more like them. No they are not (literary masterpiece's) but we'll written beautiful story's. Proving that you do not need bad language, sex or violence.

60 people found this helpful

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aisling

My Favorite Rosamund Pilcher

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2016

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I've enjoyed every one of Rosamund Pilcher's novels I've read, and I own several copies of her books for the joy of re-reading them. "Coming Home" is, in my opinion, the very best and most satisfying. The plot is the story of the life of a typical English daughter of parents who live and work in a far country of the British Empire. It is a life of separation from family, of boarding school, of making lifelong friends. The plot takes us through the sacrifices and gallantry of the British people through WWII. The characters are richly drawn with warmth and intimacy. The fact that the heroine Judith Dunbar inherits a small fortune and her closest friends are wealthy is probably not typical. However, Judith is a brave, unassuming, intelligent girl who accepts her life as it comes to her. This novel gives us an amazing peek into the lives of the upper class British as they faced the evils of WWII and its aftermath.

67 people found this helpful

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SHAY RON

LOVE THIS BOOK! Love not wanting to put it down and sleep, hate turning the last page.

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2017

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LOVE LOVE LOVE I couldn't put this down at night! I have never been to Europe, but through Rosamunde Pilcher's beautiful, crafty and very clever ways of allowing you into the lives of her characters, I can almost smell those ocean. To picture the houses, elaborate or tiny cottage be it, it's as if you can feel the warmth or cold in the room. I love the people she creates, honestly... they become so real and so intricate in their own personality.

35 people found this helpful

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E. A. Summers

A great story of a difficult and challenging time by a master of character and scene

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2016

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I read several Rosamunde Pilcher books, including "The Shell Seekers" when I was in my thirties. Now, I am 60 and have re-read and read previously unread of her writing. "Coming Home" is my favorite, second only to "The Shell Seekers". I love the character development and the way that even the more flawed characters are written in a way that allows empathy and compassion. Additionally, the characters grow with consistency based on things happening in the story. I very much dislike when a character behaves in an unbelievable way in order to further a story and so I appreciate the realness of Rosamunde Pilcher's characters.

This book was not only a wonderful story of people I grew to care about, but I also learned much I did not know about the war and post-war. The setting is so beautiful also - part of the joy of reading Rosamunde Pilcher is the background scenery, homes and gardens. I will read this one again even though it is a difficult time period to read about.

33 people found this helpful

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cablelady

Wonderful

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2020

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This story takes you way back in time to the 1930's and the war in 1938 thru the 1940's. But it is the story of Judith, a young girl living in the English countryside with her mother and her young sister. She goes off to a private school, becomes friends with Loveday, a funny, outgoing girl from a well to do family. Her life changes in so many ways since her mother & sister have to move far away to be with her father and his work in Singapore. After she finishes her studies at St. Ursula's, she is taken in to live with her friend Loveday's family. Lots of encounters, friendships, troubles, etc. follow her, mostly good but some bad and she eventually leaves to join the services during the war as a Wren to do her part. She has previously met a couple of really nice guys but the war and other circumstances always manage to change her life and history. She does so much for everyone else including housing and caring for them. There are many tragic moments.
It is quite a long book but very well written. I first read Rosamunde Pilcher years ago and loved her writing and where it took place, in Cornwall, in England. Her descriptions of everything are so very alive as to make you feel as though you were there.
The story seems to drag a little at times but is worth continuing til the end. I highly recommend it.

5 people found this helpful

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Sylvia E. Edwards

I always come home to my favourite author

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2020

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I discovered Rosamunde decades ago, and have read all of her books multiple times; she has seen me through many stressful situations!
Not long ago I moved back to England from America, and left behind my beloved collection of books. Since these are stressful times, I turned to Rosamunde once again, and my only disappointment is that I have finished the book.
It is a wonderful story, beautifully told, peopled with characters who will become friends.
I look forward to rereading all of her other books.
Enjoy!

6 people found this helpful

SusannahB

Undemanding and Comforting 'Lockdown' Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2020

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In Rosamunde Pilcher’s ‘Coming Home’ we meet fourteen-year-old Judith Dunbar whose father is working in Sri Lanka and who is sent to boarding school in Cornwall when her mother and much younger sister travel out to Sri Lanka to join Judith’s father. Missing her mother and sister, Judith is pleased when she makes friends with Loveday Carey-Lewis, the youngest child of the upper-class Carey-Lewis family who live at Nancherrow, a wonderful country house nearby and close to the sea (rather like ‘Manderley’ in Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’) and she soon becomes almost one of the family. At Nancherrow Judith meets Loveday’s older brother, Edward (with whom she falls in love), Loveday’s lovely older sister, Athena, and Loveday’s parents, Colonel Carey-Lewis and his beautiful, glamorous and much younger wife, Diana, who does much to make Judith feel at home. Spending Easters, Christmases and sun-drenched summer holidays at Nancherrow, Judith, who is becoming more attractive as time passes, grows even closer to the Carey-Lewises and very close to the handsome Edward, who appears to be as keen on Judith as she is on him. However, is Judith actually destined to be with Edward, as she dreams of? Or does life have something or someone different in store for her - after all, there is more than one young man who becomes attracted to her, and when the Second World War breaks out and life changes for Judith and everyone around her, she begins to see a whole new life opening out for her.

Rosamunde Pilcher has created a lovely setting and a whole host of sympathetic characters for her family saga which is mostly set in the beautiful county of Cornwall, but I should mention that I found some of the protagonists rather stereotypical and I felt that the story relied on too many coincidences in order for it to work. On the plus side, I enjoyed the author’s descriptions of situation and setting and although I would have liked to have seen more in the way of character development, this novel is filled with lots of interesting little details about the day-to-day lives of the characters which made for enjoyable and comforting reading - especially at the present time during ‘lockdown’.

3 Stars.

5 people found this helpful

Ella Belakovska

Perfect for a beach read or a rainy weekend

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2018

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I took a while to get into this book, partly due to circumstances and partly because I struggled to engage with the details of Judith's early life. Another reviewer said they had felt the same but, as they continued to read it got much better, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Rosamunde Pilcher has created some lovely characters in this novel, and because you follow them over some period of time, you really get to know them. Judith's character was particularly well-written, with a believable sense of a young woman coming of age and dealing with the fear and uncertainty of war.

One of the main strengths of this book was showing war from a slightly different perspective than most wartime novels. Without spoiling the plot too much, Judith was neither a fighter nor a victim, and her role in the war effort enables the reader to see a variety of places without the usual tropes to grapple with. Pilcher also sets the scene for potential difficulties, some of which are realised, some of which never come to fruition, which does mean that the writing is not too predictable. That said, there were occasions when this rendered some text superfluous to moving the plot forward, but it did give a stronger sense of Judith's thought processes and feelings. There are some sad moments (I blubbed on more than one occasion), which is unavoidable in a story set during war, but they are not laid on too morbidly.

Locations are also painted vividly, and Cornwall is especially well-described. Given the time period and the class of people represented, it really does invoke a feeling of another era. Many of the scenes where they were splashing about on sunny beaches or eating picnics took me back to my Enid Blyton-reading childhood!

The biggest weakness was the neatly wrapped-up ending. There were a couple of far too coincidental moments and although one might have been believable, they came too thick and fast to maintain a sense of reality. The most frustrating of these was a plot device that seemed to completely change a character for no reason (other than convenience for the happy ending) and that really jarred with me.

On the whole, though, I got utterly caught up in this and spent the best part of a day finishing it, which felt like a day well spent. Recommended for anyone who is interested in historical fiction, particularly wartime stories, and for those who want a bit of escapism.

8 people found this helpful

Caroline

Comforting Novel - savour every word!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2021

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Coming Home can best be described as a real family saga. Set in the 1930s, Judith Dunbar's parents are moving to Singapore leaving Judith to go to boarding school. At school she becomes friends with Loveday Carey-Lewis and visits her family estate, Nancherrow. There she meets and falls in love with the Carey-Lewis family. She also encounters first love with Loveday's brother, Edward.

But war is approaching and Judith must leave Nancherrow. She is eager to contribute to the war effort, especially while waiting for news of her beloved family, who were in the area when Singapore fell. Will Judith see her family again? Will she return to Nancherrow? And what does Coming Home mean to the Carey-Lewis family and their assorted friends?

I'm not entirely sure why I feel this is a Spring book, but whenever I imagine this book, I always see Spring days, fresh winds and daffodils.

Essentially I see this book as being divided into two main parts; pre-war with all of the build up and establishment of all the characters, and the second part is about the war itself, the fight at home and abroad. The pacing is different, pre-war moves along at a languid pace, but the book picks up speed in the second half as the years roll by.

As with the other Pilcher works I have read, art and landscape remain a constant theme throughout the book. There are beautiful paintings on display at Nancherrow, Gus is an artist immortalising the family in his pictures. The final scenes of the first part, on the eve of War, are described as if they were a painting. A painting called 'The Tennis Party' where the family all gather in the garden, lazing around with a G&T and looking toothsome. It is a moment never to be repeated and indeed the family and friends will never be all together again.

Gus remembers a painting he was immensely fond of depicting a girl standing on the edge of a cliff, looking out to see, her hair blowing in the wind. And it is this image which he hangs onto throughout the book.

Cornwall is described beautifully and made me want to visit. Loveday cannot bear to leave Cornwall and the family's love for this place shines through. Other locations in the book are bleak and cold; Aunt Louise's home Windyridge and Biddy's home. But the sun always shines on Cornwall, fresh washing is hung out and Nancherrow is a warm, loving place.

Whilst it is Judith and the Carey-Lewis's who are central to the story, it is pleasing that not all the action is wholly centred on them. Judith is a girl who has been forced to grow up quickly with being left in England, but she definitely has her head screwed on! One of our group asked if this was realistic, and I realised that I take a lot on faith that this was how people behaved. Judith is not prone to tears or hysterics but instead is sensible, calm and wise beyond her years.

I find Diana Carey-Lewis fascinating. She is stunning and enjoys nothing more than a house full of guests. Whilst devoted to her husband, who is considerably older than she is, she still need to take time in London, dancing and shopping. Indeed it is Judith who describes the female Carey-Lewis's as lighting up a room and leaving it dimmer when they leave.

The most interesting character for me is Gus. Gus has never felt he fitted in due to his class, until he meets Edward. He is a serious man, loves engineering but his passion is art which he is immensely talented at.

Coming Home is definitely a big theme running through the book, but for me is most central for Judith and Gus. Judith has never really had solid roots. She is waiting for when her mother will go abroad, staying at school instead and staying with Aunts or friends during the school holidays. And then she discovers Nancherrow, is given her own room there and treated like an extra daughter. When she has to leave it is heartbreaking and she spends her time living all over the world working for the war effort.

For Gus, the ending is sublime because he is finally at home and at peace after the ravages of war. His home is not a place but a person.

I have loved reading this again and as ever remain so impressed with Rosamunde Pilcher's writing. There are moments that occur that truly feel like a punch to the solar plexus.

Billy Fawcett is an utterly terrifying character, especially to the young Judith and her fear made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

It is fascinating to hear about work done during the war, especially through Judith;'s experiences in London and then abroad.

This is a well-written family saga that is absorbing in its attention to detail. I read this novel slowly and savoured every word. Please do not be put off by the size of the book, you will read this quickly. It's marvellous and I have hesitation in awarding this five stars.

One person found this helpful

Donna Allen

Reunited with an old friend

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2021

Verified Purchase

I first read Coming Home many years ago and loved it, finding it a perfect escape from the world. I found the adaptation for TV on my5 which was pleasant but reminded me how much more there was in the book, so I've treated myself to a good old fashioned Christmas read, escaping once more to a world of genteel characters and images of Cornwall that have brightened rainy afternoons and cheered me - a perfect antidote to the gloom of living in this permanently miserable, lacklustre time of wokeism, cancel culture and covidworld doom.

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