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The Shell Seekers cover art

The Shell Seekers

By: Rosamunde Pilcher
Narrated by: Hayley Atwell
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Summary

For the first time in unabridged audio download comes Rosamunde Pilcher's phenomenal, heartwarming best seller, read by Hayley Atwell.

Artist's daughter Penelope Keeling can look back on a full and varied life: a Bohemian childhood in London and Cornwall, an unhappy wartime marriage, and the one man she truly loved. She has brought up three children - and learned to accept them as they are.

Yet she is far too energetic and independent to settle sweetly into pensioned-off old age. And when she discovers that her most treasured possession, her father's painting, The Shell Seekers, is now worth a small fortune, it is Penelope who must make the decisions that will determine whether her family can continue to survive as a family or be split apart.

©1987 Rosamunde Pilcher (P)2017 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

What listeners say about The Shell Seekers

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

A genuine, quaint story that keeps you listening

The story is fairly gentle but believable. No groundbreaking dramas or events but a lovely narrative well told which draws you in and makes you truly feel for the characters.

My only criticism would be of the narrator. Whilst beautifully read for the main, some characters had quiet voices and I found myself having to turn up the volume a lot to hear certain passages. Not disastrous but could do with some sound tweaking.

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16 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful

Needed a ‘feel good’ book after The name of the rose and this fitted the bill perfectly. Comic, tragic and with some history thrown in. If you liked Captain Corelli read this. If you like this, read Corelli. Recommended.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful Story.

I absolutely love this book. It’s one of my all time favourite books. Such a shame the narrator mis pronounced so many many words. It was really irritating.
I am so happy that Jill Bond is narrating September.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Critical of some pronounciation

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this narration by Hayley Attwell. Having read this book several times myself before my central vision declined I was quite surprised at the pronounciation of several words which I found quite irritating. For example dahlias and hearth.
Possibly being in my eighties I am not au fait with modern speech.
This is one of my comfort reads and no doubt I shall listen to it again some time. OverLl enjoyable.Such a great novel beautifully written.

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11 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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15 years on and it's still my favourite book!

Rosamunde Pilcher at her best. I come back to this book so many times, as my comfort read. It's so easy for me to identify with the 80's culture, the characters, family ties, so many stories and generations entangled into one. dated yes, but a slices of histories bridging generational gaps. Romance, war stories, adventure and history all in one read. Comfort reading at its best.

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful book

Just loved this book. A real beauty. Saga of the life of a wonderful unselfish woman. Her loves, life and tragedies. All the characters are rich with life. And beautifully read.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Easy listening, well written family drama

Well written family saga with astute observations of human characteristics and motivations. Set in the 1980’s with flashbacks to the 1930’s and onwards.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the locations and the timeframes. The characters are well rounded and believable. I also enjoyed the old fashioned feel of the book, set in a time before mobile phones and social media. It was lovely to listen to a story without swearing or descriptive love scenes.

Hayley Atwell has a soothing voice and reads the story very well. If I’m being picky, her Scottish accent isn’t great and I would have preferred the speed of the text to have been slower - at times I felt I was racing through the book when in fact this is a great book for relaxing. I tried reducing the speed via Settings however this sounded ridiculous.

I was sorry when the book finished. I can understand why this author is a favourite in Germany with many films having been made from her books. I will be listening to more Pilcher on Audible.



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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant

I love this story so much - Rosamunde Pilcher is so good at setting the scene, making you feel as if you are actually there. The characters are believable and varied, all the threads of the story from wartime to recently brilliantly coming together. I’ve read this many times but it’s even better with audible narration - the narrator has the perfect voice for this book.
Highly recommended - you will love it!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Overly long with disappointing narration

I stuck with this book as it was actually rather good at sending me off to sleep at night.
Some of the writing was quite lyrical but there were many tedious parts, not helped by Hayley Attwell’s disappointing narration with its woeful accents and abundant mispronunciations..

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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loved it

about selfish children and a selfless mother.
love and loss.
a truly lovely book.
really enjoyed it.

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3 people found this helpful