Robin Pilcher novel explores family relationships, care of a failing parent, and returning to a childhood home *** 3 Stars

by Gabrielle Pantera

Robin Pilcher novel The Long Way Home is set in Alloa, Scotland

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 7/1/10 - “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 caring for a parent in failing health. The heart of the book is the stepfather Leo’s story. However, 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 the family moved to Scotland.

Claire leaves Scotland and marries Art, 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 return to New York. Then a couple years later Leo falls and breaks his hip. When Claire and Art go back to Scotland with Violet, they realize that Leo has lots of trouble remembering things. Because he’s helping Leo, Claire can’t avoid seeing her first love Jonas. Why did he tell her to go away when they were young?

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.”

After the production company was taken over by a Japanese conglomerate,  development was put on hold and Pilcher’s treatment was forgotten. About eight years later, Pilcher adapted the treatment into the novel An Ocean Apart.

Pilcher’s mother received a British Tourism Award in 2002 for the positive impact her stories had on tourism. 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.”

Pilcher’s editor is Tom Dunne at Tom Dunne Books, part of St. Martin’s Press. “I’ve known Tom for a long time,” says Pilcher. “He’s an excellent editor. He never stops the flow of the book while it’s being written, only pointing out the really big changes he feels would benefit the book once the first draft has been submitted.” Pilcher’s agent is Felicity Bryan.

Pilcher says there are no plans currently to adapt The Long Way Home for film or television.

With his old friend, Will Thomson, Pilcher runs a short story website called Shortbread. “The development of that and the launch of a new and improved site has really been taking up most of my energies since finishing The Long Way Home,” says Pilcher. “Shortbread will become an integral part of the Spanish Foundation over the next year or two. 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.”

Pilcher currently lives on a farm about five miles from Dundee in Scotland where he was born. Dundee is the site of the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, the most famous bridge disaster in the British Isles. It was William McGonagall who wrote the infamous “Tay Bridge Disaster”, remembered as one of the worst British poems ever written.

The Long Way Home by Robin Pilcher

Hardcover, 304 pages, Publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, 1 edition (March 30, 2010)

Language: English, ISBN: 9780312354350

http://www.robinpilcher.co.uk/

http://www.shortbreadstories.co.uk/