Flowers are everywhere, even decorating the pages, in Pilcher's sylvan valentine to prewar Cornwall.

Homily-laden escapist fare with drama that's never as good as the gardening. Though the letter in which he'll later declare his lifelong devotion never reaches Judith, a typical wartime happy ending is ensured. In the service, she has a passionate one-nighter with a Cornish doctor who's not only sensible but knows how to cook a good steak.

Judith, mourning the death of Edward Carey-Lewis, joins the Wrens, the Women's Royal Navy Service. Finally, after a lot of long walks and Cornish cream teas, WW II begins, and the beautiful young men who decorated the lawns of Nancherrow are wounded, taken prisoner, or killed. Nettlebed the cook, advised by the Carey Lewises' wise nanny Mary Millywaya veritable Disney film of charming support staffJudith copes with growing up ``alone.'' When Aunt Louise dies in a car crash, though, Judith comes into a considerable fortune of her ownone that enables her to buy the home she, too, has always craved. Cushioned by cashmere and fine Shetland, befriended by Nettlebed the butler and Mrs. Though Judith is supposed to spend her holidays with her golf-playing Aunt Louise, she quickly finds a happier home at Nancherrow, the Carey- Lewises' luxurious estate on the Cornish coast. There, she befriends the rich, madcap Loveday Carey-Lewis and is quickly adopted by her glamorous, likable family. It's 1936 when Pilcher's (September, 1990, etc.) sensible, selfless heroine Judith Dunbara true English roseis separated from her family: Her mother and sister go off to Ceylon to join her father, and Judith, 14, is sent to St. From that very first moment, Judith fell in love with Nancherrow.Mega-selling Pilcher's very, very long WW II soap: the hardships of the Duration are never far from a restoring cup of China tea and a silver tray of iced cakes. In the distance could be glimpsed the blue horizon, and the sea. To the south, which was the front of the house, these lawns took the form of terraces, bisected by flights of stone steps. The front door was set in the round tower, castellated at its top like some Norman keep, and all about stretched green lawns, spreading vistas of shrub and woodland, ornamental flower-beds, and yellow and purple carpets of daffodils and crocus. It stood back, beyond a carriage sweep of pale sea-pebbles, and its eastern wall was smothered with clematis and climbing roses. It was built of local granite, and slate-roofed, with long windows on the two floors, and a line of dormer windows above these. Just the most wonderful home that we all adore.'Īnd when they came at last to Nancherrow, Judith saw exactly what she meant. That sinking feeling when you're coming somewhere new.

Coming home pilcher