Wild Mountain Thyme (by Rosamunde Pilcher)

(Amazon UK link)

What a wonderful writer Rosamunde Pilcher is. Such a pity she has retired, although she deserves some peace in her older years, after producing such an excellent selection of novels over the years.

She is one of the few writers who has a genius for characterisation. I don't know how she does it, but I find myself caring enormously about the people in her books, right from the start. Ending them is like saying goodbye to dearly-loved friends.

I re-read them all periodically, of course, and enjoy them all the more each time.

'Wild MountainThyme' begins with the playwright Oliver Dobbs passing through the town where his two-year-old son lives with his maternal grandparents. On an impulse, he stops to see him... and events take a rather surprising turn...

Victoria is due a holiday, so when her ex-boyfriend Oliver arrives on her doorstep with his son and proposes a trip to Scotland to visit one of her favourite writers, whom he knows, it doesn't take much to persuade her.

What a lovely book this is, mixing delight and tragedy, gentle humour and some deeply moving moments. Characters are so real that even unlikely situations become believable in Rosamunde Pilcher's hands.

Wonderful, relaxing, and highly recommended.