An Ocean Apart [Paperback]

It's a double-edged sword, being the son or daughter of a famous novelist. Martin Amis quickly established the fact that his novels were nothing at all like his father Kingsley's, and one approaches Robin Pilcher's novel wondering if it's in the rich and detailed style of his mother Rosamund. The answer is yes and no: the characterisation has the evocative and sweeping quality of his mother's, but his narrative is tougher and more concerned with the present than the effects of the past.

When his wife dies of cancer, David Costorphine finds himself totally unable to cope. Withdrawing from his three children and the family whiskey business, he escapes into his much-loved garden, establishing an order there that is not possible in the rest of his life. When he is forced by business to go to America, his rehabilitation begins when he meets the remarkable Jennifer and her son Benji. As he builds a relationship with both mother and son, a disturbing discovery forces him to return home and come to terms with the neglect he's been practising. Pilcher's prose is much more forceful and less elegiac than his mother's, but it's clear that he shares her narrative gifts. Slowly An Ocean Apart begins to exert an inexorable grip on the reader, and David's fate becomes a matter of concern and interest. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Perfectly constructed fairytale of loss and recovery...interesting family romance (THE TIMES )

A sensitive and compulsive novel...His mother should be proud (MAIL ON SUNDAY )

Son of Rosamunde proves he, too, can spin a captivating yarn. This is a total tear-jerker (WOMAN'S JOURNAL )

An ideal read for a lazy winter weekend (WOMAN & HOME )

`A sensitive and compulsive novel...His mother should be proud'

`Son of Rosamunde proves he, too, can spin a captivating yarn. This is a total tearjerker'

`An ideal read for a lazy winter weekend'

A compelling and contemporary love story of family relationships and human nature. An unputdownable, compulsive read.

`[A] perfectly constructed fairytale of loss and recovery'

`A total tear-jerker'

`An ideal read for a lazy winter weekend'

David Corstorphine is a man in despair. His young wife has died tragically from cancer and he is devastated. Searching for relief from his memories, he gives up working in the family business and takes it upon himself to restore the rose garden of his ancestral home. His children and his parents can only stand back and let him come to terms with the loss, which they too share. By using the driving physical toil of gardening he is able to lose himself.

The family-owned whisky distillery becomes the catalyst that moves him from his secure routine back into the real world, and a business meeting in the USA shocks him into making some decisions about the rest of his life.

His rehabilitation begins when he gets a job as a handyman/gardener to a single mother, Jennifer. He develops a rewarding relationship with her and her son, Benji, which restores his faith in human nature. Strengthened, he returns to Scotland and saves the family business from the villains who were trying to take it over...

Born in Dundee in 1950, Robin Pilcher is married with four children. He has been an assistant film cameraman, PR consultant and a farmer. This is his first novel.

He reached up to give the side of her face a brush with his hand. As he did so, she caught it and held it against her cheek, and he watched as a tear fell from her eye and ran off down the side of his finger.

"Why are you such a special man, David?"

"God, I'm not. I can tell you that straight."

"Oh yes, you are." She paused and looked deep into his eyes. "I wonder why it couldn't have been me you met all those years ago in Oxford." She smiled and took his hand round to her mouth and kissed it before returning it to her cheek. "Just the wrong time, the wrong place, an ocean apart."

She reached over and kissed him gently on the cheek, then, putting her arms around his shoulders, she pulled her face close into his neck.

"But we found a bridge, didn't we, my greatest friend?" she whispered quietly into his ear. "All these years later, we found a bridge." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.