Rosamunde Pilcher was born Rosamunde Scott on September 22, 1924 in Lelant, Cornwall, England. When World War II broke out, she left school and went to work for the Foreign Office. In 1944, she joined the Women's Royal Naval Service and was stationed in Ceylon when the war ended. Her first short story was published while she was serving in Ceylon. She married Graham Pilcher in 1946.
Her first novel, Half-Way to the Moon, was published in 1949 under the penname Jane Fraser. She continued writing books under that penname into the early 1960s, but in 1955 she also published her first book under her own name entitled A Secret to Tell. Her best-known novel, The Shell Seekers, was published in 1987. Her other novels included Sleeping Tiger, The End of the Summer, Wild Mountain Thyme, Voices in Summer, September, Coming Home, and Winter Solstice. She also wrote short stories. She died after a short illness on February 6, 2019 at the age of 94.
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