Queen of happy endings Rosamunde Pilcher would have been 100 today

On September 22, the British author Rosamunde Pilcher would have turned 100. With 60 million books sold and 150 television films, she remains the undisputed queen of cheesy love stories.

She is even more popular in Germany than in her native Great Britain. Rosamunde Pilcher only became an international bestselling author shortly before her retirement age. On September 22, the successful author would have been 100 years old.

Today, her name stands for a genre of its own on German television - for somewhat cheesy love stories, feel-good entertainment and a fairytale image of Great Britain far removed from reality.

Her commercial breakthrough came in 1987 with the family saga "The Shell Seekers". The 800-page tome became a bestseller - not only in the UK, but also in the USA and Germany, where it was first published in 1990. To date, the novel has been translated into more than 40 languages.

Famous overnight after 45 years

When she became famous, Pilcher was already over 60 years old. "I became successful overnight, but it took me 45 years," she later joked on the BBC talk show "Wogan".

She had been writing since she was a child. If she didn't write, something was missing. "It's just a part of me." She was 18 when one of her short stories was published in a magazine for the first time.

With the success of "Shell Seekers", public interest in her older works increased. Rosamunde Pilcher published around 30 books, including a dozen short story collections, throughout her life.

Her last work, "Winter Solstice", was published in 2000. She then retired from writing and enjoyed her retirement. She died in 2019 after suffering a stroke.

Queen Camilla is a Rosamunde Pilcher fan

At the heart of her stories were always the same themes: Family, love and relationships - happy endings guaranteed.

The action often took place in Pilcher's native Cornwall. Her books and the later film adaptations made the structurally weak region a popular travel destination, especially for Germans.

In 2016, the current King Charles (75), who was still a prince at the time and held the title Duke of Cornwall, thanked Pilcher for this. His wife, the current Queen Camilla (77), revealed that she was a fan.

From bestseller to ratings hit

The fact that many people today associate Rosamunde Pilcher with television rather than literature is largely down to Michael Smeaton (72). The German-British TV producer became aware of Pilcher in the early 1990s through a trainee who had read "The Shell Seekers". Together with colleagues, he visited the author in her adopted home in Dundee, Scotland. Over tea, they suggested a TV adaptation.

"The Shell Seekers" had already been filmed for television in 1989 with Angela Lansbury (1925-2022) in the leading role. "And Mrs. Pilcher didn't like that film at all," Smeaton recalled in an interview with the German Press Agency in London. "But we didn't even know that the movie existed and that she didn't like it."

Nevertheless, Pilcher was open to her stories being filmed again - now for German television. "She was delighted."

"Stormy Encounter" was broadcast on ZDF on October 30, 1993, became a ratings hit and was the beginning of a success story. ZDF initially commissioned ten more films.

However, Smeaton did not expect Rosamunde Pilcher to still be running 30 years later. "We may have had it on our radar that we would make these ten more films," he said. "But not that there would be 150."

Colloquially, people jokingly talk about "pilchers" when watching on a Sunday evening.

Beautiful people and beautiful landscapes

The films are famous for their beautiful landscape shots, which are preferably filmed in Cornwall - preferably in bright sunshine. With its beaches, cliffs and vast green spaces, the area provides the ideal backdrop for the romances.

"Beautiful people and beautiful landscapes in an all-round love story," is how production manager Beate Balser described the concept years ago in an interview with dpa.

While the first films remained close to the novels, Pilcher's short stories later provided inspiration. According to Smeaton, the author initially read the scripts. In the end, she trusted the German filmmakers. She even bequeathed them her "little black book", in which she had meticulously recorded ideas and titles for decades.

"We had to promise her back then that it was a treasure and we must never pass it on in any way," said the producer.

The stories in the "little book" have long since been exhausted. "We're more likely to find them with her children now," says Smeaton, who was friends with Pilcher until her death and maintained close contact with her family. "They've tidied up the house and found new old stories."

It all comes down to the "Pilcher gene"

In the meantime, old mini-short stories are being pimped up into larger TV stories that have to do justice to the British author 's style.

"The Pilcher audience has a very fine sense of whether it's Pilcher or not," says Smeaton, who smiles as he talks about the "Pilcher gene" that authors of new stories must have. "They know what they are allowed to write and what they are not allowed to write." Sex, nudity and violence are taboo - but a happy ending is mandatory.

However, the films have to keep up with the times. That's why there have already been love stories with homosexual couples, for example. "That's something Ms. Pilcher would have written at any time," Smeaton is sure. "She was a very progressive, modern woman. Even though she was so old, she was very modern." This was also due to her family. Pilcher had four children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

More videos from the department

dpa