The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

Diving into a book by the late Rosamunde Pilcher is akin to wrapping yourself in a thick, soft sweater on a freezing cold day and watching the snow fall while sipping a nice warm cup of mulled wine. Her books are the literary equivalent of comfort food. They take you into a world that maybe never truly existed but that you surely wish did and that was still around. She writes about Great Britain and the everyday loves, heartbreaks and lives of ordinary men, women and children, and does it in such a way that when you finish her books, you are so disappointed to be back in the real world. And yet, her books are set in the real world. There are no wizards, no fairies, no witches, no spells, no dragons, no fantasy. Just people going about their daily business, experiencing what all of us experience each day, but described so calmly, so luxuriously, so beautifully that you wish her characters were your family and friends.

The Shell Seekers was actually the second book of hers that I ever read. It is arguably her most well-known and most beloved, and for good reason. The main character, an older lady named Penelope Keeling, lives alone in Gloucestershire after having lived through the Second World War. She has just come home from the hospital after having suffered a minor heart attack (though is any heart attack really minor?) and is taking stock of her life. Her story is told both through her own memory flashbacks of people who impacted her life, and through the stories of her three children, Nancy, Olivia and Noel. You come to get to know all of them and see how Penelope’s attitude toward life has impacted them, each in different ways.

Penelope is essentially a free spirit who has never allowed rules or societal conventions to run her life. Her father, Lawrence, a painter in Cornwall and her mother, Sophie, a beautiful French painter’s model, raised Penelope to be cultured, to appreciate good food and wine and friends and music and books and travel. When World War II hits Great Britain, they are trapped living in Cornwall and have to leave their huge house in London. Penelope’s feckless husband Ambrose is serving overseas and she meets and falls in love with Richard, a Royal Air Force commander. Their love story is both beautiful and poignant, taking place as it does during such a time of turmoil, and when he is inevitably killed, a part of Penelope dies with him, and her subsequent staying in her marriage makes neither her nor Ambrose happy.

I think the reason why this, and so many of Pilcher’s other novels, are so popular is not only because they do seem to take you back to a calmer, simpler time but they also beautifully showcase all the turmoil and ups and downs that all families go through. All parents find their children irritating, frustrating and disappointing, while loving them at the same time. All relationships go through joy, annoyance, passion, anger and heartbreak. All children feel some level of aggravation toward their parents at one point or another. Pilcher is clearly a master of the human heart and makes us feel not just like and dislike for her characters, she makes us understand them and subsequently, even if the character is dislikable, like Noel or Nancy or Ambrose, we also in many ways feel sorry for them. To me, that is the mark of a truly great writer – to make unlovable characters perhaps not liked but certainly understood by the reader.

It also doesn’t hurt that Pilcher is also able to wonderfully evoke a sense of environment with her lush descriptions of flowers, gardens, furniture, clothes, and food, not just during times of plenty but even when Penelope and her father and their family face deprivations during wartime. Penelope is a wonderful cook and loves to entertain (no wonder I related to her so much!) and the descriptions of cauliflower cheese, fish pie, green beans, mashed potatoes, sirloin roasted with onions, rhubarb crumble, decanted wine, roast chicken, vegetable soup, eggs and sausages, and of course, British teatime treats, are mouth-watering to say the least. The food is a constant thread throughout all of her books and it makes me suspect Pilcher was a closet foodie.

Back to the book. Penelope’s father Lawrence’s paintings have come back into vogue after many years of being unappreciated, and many have been sold for thousands of dollars. Penelope owns three paintings by him, one titled The Shell Seekers, and is her most prized possession. Her children Nancy and Noel pressure her into trying to sell her paintings, and it’s through these most obnoxious efforts that you come to see how shallow and selfish they both are. Olivia is Penelope’s favorite and although she is a hard-headed business woman who tolerates no nonsense from anyone, she is more like her mother than anyone else, and their bond is seen time and again as a lifeline to them both throughout the book. In one of my favorite chapters, Olivia takes a vacation to Ibiza in Spain, meets the love of her life Cosmo and agrees to live with him for a year. The descriptions of Ibiza, the flowers, the beach, the gorgeous blue sky, the agriculture, the music, were so beautiful. I lived in Spain for a year when I was in college and this chapter in particular brought back so many wonderful memories.

Olivia’s lover Cosmo is a very handsome, cultured and erudite man who woos Olivia with books, music, food, long discussions of art and poetry and literature, passionate lovemaking, and of course, his cooking skills. Because what woman wouldn’t want a man who could do all of those things AND be able to cook her a divine meal?

” ‘How would it be if we got ourselves something to eat and talked the matter over?’ Which they did, returning to the house where he said that he would make pasta, with a mushroom-and-ham sauce, and as he was obviously a much better cook than she, Olivia took heself off and back into the garden. She found her way to his vegetable patch, picked a lettuce and some tomatoes, and, deep in shady leaves, a cluster of baby courgettes. These spoils she bore back to the kitchen, where she stood at the sink and made a simple salad.”

Pasta in a ham and mushroom sauce sounded delicious, and although I didn’t have a handsome, cultured and erudite man around to cook it for me and eat it with me, it still came out wonderful.

INGREDIENTS
1 pound rigatoni pasta, boiled and drained and with a cupful of the cooking water reserved
1 shallot, peeled and chopped into small chunks
1 tablespoon garlic olive oil
1 cup each of sliced bella mushrooms and sliced chanterelle mushrooms
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 generous tablespoon each of fresh rosemary and fresh chives
12-15 slices smoked ham
Parmesan cheese to taste
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon mushroom bouillon paste

METHOD
Heat the garlic olive oil in a large skillet and add the chopped shallot, the parsley, and the rosemary and chives. Season with salt and sauté at medium for about five minutes.

Add the mushrooms to the shallot-herb mixture in the skillet, stir to mix and combine the flavors, and let cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. You could also add a splash of white wine here if you’d like.

Once the mushrooms are cooked, add in the chopped ham, stir to mix, lower the heat and let cook another 10 minutes, again stirring occasionally.

Add the drained pasta to the mushroom mixture, stir to combine, add in about a tablespoon of reserved pasta water, and stir again.

Grate in as much Parmesan cheese as your dairy-loving heart desires. I estimate I used a generous cup and a half, possibly two. This is so much a matter of taste.

Pour over the heavy cream and add in the mushroom bouillon paste and stir everything together. Let simmer over low heat for another five minutes and taste. Add more seasoning if needed or wanted.

Add the rest of the fresh parsley to the pasta, stir to mix, and serve. It makes a divine autumn meal, served with a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc or other dry white wine, and tastes, oddly enough, of both Italy and Spain. A perfect late lunch, whether eaten with a handsome, cultured and erudite man or with the person you love most in the world, yourself.