September, by author of The Shell Seekers Rosamunde Pilcher, is another book in a long line by this author which most readers will enjoy thoroughly. Set in Scotland, this book focuses on several people gathering together to celebrate the 21st birthday of a local girl. While firmly set in the present through the use of flashbacks, we come to know these people and the events which bring them to this point in time.
Among the various people gathering members and friends of two well known families of the village. Archie Balmerino is a major landowner of the area who is a Lord rather down on his income. During a military exercise he suffered a tragedy which has altered his chance for a livelihood once he left the military as well as leaving him emotionally fragile. Isobel his loving wife hosts tourist families during the season at their stately home while their daughter travels the continent trying to find a place for herself. And then there is Pandora, Archie's sister who left the family home at 18, and is only now returning after 20 years to be with family and friends before it is too late.
The Aird family includes Violet, the 78 year old matriarch of the family and a woman reminiscent of Penelope Keeling from The Shell Seekers. Her prosperous son Edmund is married to his second wife Virginia although he has a secret he never shared with her which is now threatening to undo them. Alexa is Edmund's daughter from his first marriage who now finds happiness with an older man and Henry the progeny of the Airds second marriage is about to leave for boarding school at the tender age of 8 which upsets Virginia greatly. And seeing over this family is Edie who as Mrs. Aird's housekeeper cares for all of them as if they were her own
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