Author Of The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher, Dies At 94

Rosamunde Pilcher

Author of The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher  has died at the age of 94 following a short illness, her agent has confirmed.

The novelist penned nearly 30 romance and women's fiction books between 1949 and 2000 when she retired from writing.

Born on the north coast of Cornwall, Pilcher began writing at the age of seven and published her first short story at 18.

She once described her books as "frightfully wet little novels".

When she began writing for Mills & Boon in the late 1940s, her stories were published under the pseudonym Jane Fraser.

Her first novel as Rosamunde Pilcher, A Secret to Tell, was published in 1955.

The Shell Seekers, considered one of her most famous works, was published in 1988.

It centres on Penelope Keeling, an elderly British woman who reflects on her life and her relationships with her adult children.

The book won her international recognition, becoming one of her biggest successes and selling more than five million copies worldwide.