Introduction

Published in 1987, The Shell Seekers was written by Rosamunde Pilcher and is her first bestseller. Inspired by Pilcher’s conversation with Tom Dunne at St. Martin’s Press about her children’s desire to see their mother become famous, the novel is the author’s attempt to create a story for women based on the experiences of her generation. Set in 1984, it tells the story of Penelope Stern Keeling and her children (Nancy, Olivia, and Noel) and focuses on how war changed Penelope’s life and how the prospect of inheritance brought out the worst and the best in her children. The Shell Seekers was made into a movie starring Angela Lansbury in 1989 and a television miniseries starring Vanessa Redgrave in 2006.

This study guide utilizes the ebook version of the novel published by St. Martin’s Paperbacks in 1997.

Plot Summary

Penelope Keeling, a divorced mother of three grown children, returns home to Podmore’s Thatch after suffering a minor heart attack. She calls her daughter, Olivia, telling her that she decided to check herself out of the hospital against medical advice. Olivia’s older sister, Nancy, is unhappy with their mother’s decision and has lunch with Olivia to discuss the possibility of hiring someone to live with Penelope full-time to care for her. Nancy, a struggling housewife and mother of two, worries about the expense of caring for their mother because she has financial problems of her own. Olivia assures Nancy that their mother invested her money wisely after selling the family home five years previously. A short time later, Olivia learns that her former lover, Cosmo Hamilton, has died and that his daughter, Antonia, is coming to London. Antonia and Penelope were good friends during Olivia’s relationship with Cosmo, so Olivia suggests that Antonia live with Penelope as a companion, circumventing the need to hire live-in help.

Olivia and Nancy’s brother, Noel, learns through Nancy that the paintings of Lawrence Stern, Penelope’s father, are selling for high prices thanks to a renewed interest in Victorian painters. At the same time, Noel also learns that Lawrence created sketches of his paintings before beginning them. When he speaks to an expert in antiquities, he discovers that these sketches might be worth a great deal of money as well. Noel, who also feels that he would benefit from the sale of his grandfather’s works, decides to visit his mother to talk to her about selling her two works by Lawrence Stern—The Shell Seekers and a set of unfinished panels—and also to look for any existing sketches. In his attempt to find the sketches, Noel volunteers to clean out Penelope’s loft, unaware that his mother has already hidden a packet of 14 sketches that she found many years ago in her father’s art studio.

Penelope, who has always been an avid gardener like her mother, Sophie, hires a gardener to help her after her heart attack. This young man, Danus, immediately strikes up a relationship with Antonia. As Penelope witnesses this blossoming relationship, she reflects on the many relationships in her own life. She recalls her parents’ relationship, which began when Lawrence was an artist in Paris who was friends with Sophie’s parents. After World War I, Sophie was orphaned and went in search of Lawrence. They became lovers. Lawrence married Sophie after she became pregnant with Penelope, and they made their home both in his family house on Oakley Street in London and in Carn Cottage in Porthkerris, Cornwall.

At the beginning of World War II, the Sterns were in Porthkerris. They took in refugees from London: Doris Potter and her two sons, Ronald and Clark. Sophie and Penelope went to the house on Oakley Street to visit their tenants and to collect some belongings so that they could wait out the war in Porthkerris. While there, they met refugees Lalla and Willi Freidmann from Munich and heard about some of the atrocities that were taking place in Germany. Penelope was inspired to join the Women’s Royal Naval Service. While stationed at the Royal Naval Gunnery School, Penelope met Ambrose Keeling. They became pregnant after a few months of seeing each other and decided to marry. Shortly before the birth of her first daughter, Nancy, Penelope realized that she did not love Ambrose but felt that she could not leave him while he was fighting in the war.

The Royal Marines arrived in Porthkerris in order to train a group of United States Rangers to climb the local cliffs. Lawrence and Penelope met Major Richard Lomax while visiting Lawrence’s gallery shortly after Sophie died in the bombings in London. Penelope and Richard developed an intimate relationship, and Richard confessed his love for her. They made plans to marry after Penelope completed a divorce with Ambrose, but first Richard deployed with the United States Rangers that he helped train during the invasion of Normandy. Richard was killed. Penelope refocused on her marriage to Ambrose and lived with him in the house on Oakley Street, giving him two more children. However, Ambrose fell in love with his secretary and divorced Penelope, leaving her to raise their children alone. To make ends meet, Penelope sold Carn Cottage in Porthkerris.

In the present day, Penelope returns to Porthkerris with Antonia and Danus, sharing with them her memories of her childhood. When she returns to Podmore’s Thatch, she makes a visit to London to meet with Lalla Friedmann and her lawyer. The following day, Penelope suffers a fatal heart attack. After Penelope’s funeral, Nancy and Noel are angered to learn that Penelope has left her father’s sketches to Danus and her aunt’s earrings to Antonia, even though she has left the bulk of her estate to her three children to be divided up evenly. Olivia finds evidence of Penelope’s relationship with Richard and is surprised to learn about this secret side of her mother. Antonia and Danus get married and plan to begin a gardening business.