Rosamund Pilcher. The Blue Bedroom (1985) Reissue of short story collection to take advantage of the success of The Shellseekers. Pilcher wrote for Woman’s Weekly and it shows: the stories are inoffensive, cliché-ridden, pay too much attention to clothes, use a resolutely fixed viewpoint, have neatly turned plots, and deal exclusively with relationships. But while most WW fiction sticks to the romantic mode, these have more variety. Pilcher may use the WW style and form but she deals with real dilemmas, and gently leads the reader through everything from children recognising the finality of death to a housewife managing to impress unexpected guests (her husband’s boss and his wife). She’s one of those writers who have a clear eye and an unsentimental understanding of the human heart, and so her stories rise above the limitations of style and form. But I found myself reading the next story hoping it would be better than the last one; like eating potato chips. **½ (2004)
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