A Rather Remarkable Homecoming (37 page)

A.
No, there is no actual town called Port St. Francis in Cornwall. But although this is a fictional place, it’s very much based on a real coastal area. I had in mind a composite of the various fishing villages perched above harbors on the northern coast of Cornwall. In the novel, Penny is pretty specific about where it is, when she tells us that Port St. Francis is “not as far east as the castle town of Tintagel, but not as far west as fancy Padstow with its trendy gourmet restaurants.”

 

A.
That was a really fun element to play with. Whenever you delve into English history, sooner or later the Bard figures in. I discovered that the Shakespeare element in my story tied toget her a lot of the “supporting” characters—Simon Thorne who is an elderly actor that befriended Penny in the first “Rather” novel; Prince Charles and his quest to protect the natural world; and all the eccentric locals like Harriet and Colin—in a manner that allowed everyone to interact in their own quirky way. I don’t want to spoil the surprise here, but the twists and turns that occur when Penny and Jeremy pursue the history of Grandmother Beryl’s house are really what propel the story. As in life, you often find the answers in the least likely place you expect.

 

 

A.
The supporting characters that Penny and Jeremy meet, and the historical ones that they investigate, all seem to “grow” naturally right out of their physical locale. So in this novel, I couldn’t help seeing a bird-watching English earl and a Shakespearean actor and a TV chef just springing out of the Cornish landscape like wild, indigenous plants and mythological creatures. In my previous novels, I just “saw” a German count in his castle on the lake for
A Rather Curious Engagement
; and in
A Rather Charming Invitation
I couldn’t help imagining the French perfume-makers in that lavender-and-rose-and-jasmine world of Grasse, where the world’s greatest fragrances come from.

 

A.
Madeira is such a very mystical place, where, in Columbus’ time, seamen that were blown off course accidentally landed their ships on Madeira, sometimes telling strange tales of a New World to explore across the Atlantic Ocean. In a sense, Penny and Jeremy get temporarily “blown off course” in solving their case, so they must map a new direction. Also, in this novel, the juxtaposition of Madeira with Cornwall represents the love affair between the historical characters of Paloma, the tempestuous opera singer, and Prescott, the dashing smuggler. Cornwall is such a rugged, masculine place, and Madeira contrasts so nicely with its warmth and tropical lushness representing the feminine side of the story. The moment that Penny and Jeremy arrive in Madeira in pursuit of clues to the case, you just know that you’re in another world, and that the story is ready to take a very different turn.

 

 

A.
Yes and no. Actually, it all began with Penny’s vintage auto, which I call a Dragonetta. Long before I’d written a word of the first novel in the series, I imagined an attractive couple in a beautiful vintage 1930s convertible, tootling along the corniche roads of the French Riviera. I wondered, “Who are they, and what are they doing here?” I toyed with the idea of jumping right in and writing about this married couple, but something made me put the idea aside to simmer for a few months.

So, while I had this “couple-in-a-car” image tucked into the back of my mind, I went to work on what I thought was a completely different idea: a sort of Henry James story of an American girl working and living abroad, seeing Paris and London and Monte Carlo and Rome for the first time, living modestly until her whole life is turned upside down by an unexpected inheritance. I knew that my heroine, Penny Nichols, would be what I call a “sincere seeker”: someone who starts out struggling, and you root for her because, on the one hand she’s earnest and idealistic, but she’s also very human and down-to-earth, and she’s nobody’s fool, so she’s funny and self-aware. As I followed Penny through her first adventure in
A Rather Lovely Inheritance,
I just naturally came upon her English hero, Jeremy Laidley, who’s a perfect match for her. Over time they decide to pool their resources and create their brand-new investigative business called “Nichols & Laidley”.

And lo and behold, as I went from the first book to the second and the third, suddenly Penny and Jeremy, quite on their own, became this attractive couple tootling along the French Riviera in a vintage car. That’s how my “back-burner” idea had almost subconsciously merged with the “front-burner” idea. On days like that, the writing life can be a great pleasure!

1. Penny and Jeremy have just returned from their honeymoon, and they are clearly still in love. What is it that makes them so compatible? What do they have in common? How do they deal with their differences? Jeremy seems to know when to protect Penny; and Penny understands what motivates Jeremy. How do Penny and Jeremy balance each other? Do they take turns being positive and negative?

 

2. Penny and Jeremy are also running an investigative business, Nichols & Laidley, where they research estates and art treasures. They work together and apart, but usually in harmony. Penny’s area of expertise is historical research, and Jeremy’s is estate law. How do these skills merge? Where do they diverge? Think of various turns in the story, and discuss which member of the team seemed to be in charge of the situation. How do they back each other up as they move forward? Why does Penny go on the house-tour of the Earl’s estate? What does she find there? How does she manage to work together with Jeremy, even though he’s in London at the time?

 

3. The character of Rollo, who is a slightly disreputable cousin of Penny’s mother, has returned in each of the “Rather” novels. He is very fond of Penny, and she of him. Jeremy, though tolerant, is more doubtful of Rollo. How do the three of them work together and play off each other? What does Rollo symbolize to Penny and Jeremy? What are Rollo’s skills? His foibles and liabilities?

 

4. Penny discovers that when her Grandmother, and Great-Aunt Penelope, and Rollo’s father were children they had a secret summer club in which they explored the very same area of Cornwall that Penny and Jeremy are now investigating. How does this element weave through the story? Discuss the various points in the novel when the kids’ club contributes to the investigation. How do these clues unfold?

 

5. Discuss how the people in the town of Port St. Francis either hinder or help Penny and Jeremy in solving the historical mystery. Harriet and Colin are friends of Prince Charles, but Colin has some eco-warrior pals; how do they figure in? Do they make things worse or better? Where does the Earl line up in the battle to save the town? What is Trevor Branwhistle’s role? Where does the chef, Toby Taylor, line up? What part did the old fisherman Basil play?

 

6. Discuss the significance of the discovery of the masthead from the ship
La Paloma
. How does it affect the turn of the plot? Why does it change things so profoundly? Was its importance evident right away?

 

7. Discuss the tragic story of Paloma Manera and Prescott Doyle. They are both superstitious about the Scarlet Knot. Have you experienced the effect of superstition in your life? Do you know people who believe in lucky charms? What happens when they lose the charm and things go wrong?

 

8. How does Nature figure into the story? What are “rock pools”? How does the landscape reflect Penny and Jeremy’s situation as it changes? What happens when the weather turns bad? Does it stop Penny and Jeremy from making progress, or does it create an opportunity that they otherwise might have missed?

 

9. Simon Thorne is an old friend of Penny’s from the first novel,
A Rather Lovely Inheritance
. Simon was Great-Aunt Penelope’s old singing-and-dancing partner from the 1920s and 1930s. How does Simon figure into this new story,
A Rather Remarkable Homecoming
? How does Simon repay Penny for her kindness?

 

10. What were the various clues to the Shakespeare connection? How do all the research and discoveries about Shakespeare unfold? Discuss the town meeting when Jeremy and Penny present their findings. In your own experience, how do people respond when they get news they don’t want to hear?

 

11. In King Arthur’s time, the knights often had to go off to solve near-impossible riddles, or to fight formidable foes. How does the task given to Penny and Jeremy fit into this? Have they been given an impossible task? What mythological elements arise to help out when the task seems as if it can’t be done?

 

12. Have you ever visited a childhood haunt as an adult? How did it feel to go back and see the things you cared about? Were they as you remembered, or were they different, and how so?

C.A. Belmond
has published short fiction, poetry and humorous essays. She was awarded the Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship and was twice a Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award finalist. Belmond was a writer-in-residence at the Karolyi Foundation in the South of France, and her original screenplays were short-listed at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference. She has written, directed and produced television drama and documentary, and has taught writing at New York University. Her debut novel,
A Rather Lovely Inheritance
, launched the original story of Penny and Jeremy. The second book in the series is
A Rather Curious Engagement
, followed by the third novel,
A Rather Charming Invitation
. And now, the fourth and newest novel is
A Rather Remarkable Homecoming
. For news of upcoming works and events, visit the author at her Web site,
www.cabelmond.com
.

OTHER NOVELS BY C.A. BELMOND