Hundreds of people flocked to Dundee’s St Mary’s Church on Friday to pay tribute to the life of local author Rosamunde Pilcher.
Mrs Pilcher, who was born in Cornwall but moved to Tayside in later life, sold more than 30 million copies of her books worldwide.
A memorial event was held at the city centre landmark, attended by friends and family of the much-loved writer, three months after her death at the age of 94.
Her grandsons read extracts from some of her most famous works during the service.
These included The Shellseekers, published in 1987, which went on to sell more than five million copies across the globe.
It was nominated as one of the top 100 novels in the BBC’s Big Read in 2003, and was adapted for the stage and as a film for television twice.
An extract from another of her works, September, was read by Hugo Pilcher.
The novel was published three years after The Shell Seekers and was also made into a mini-series in 1996.
She was described as a “venerable soul” by Reverend Keith Hall, who welcomed loved ones to yesterday’s ceremony.
The service was conducted by Ian Young MBE, who is rector of the All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Glencarse.
Mrs Pilcher began writing seriously at the age of 14 and had her first short story, These Little Things, published during the Second World War when she was on board a submarine depot ship as part of the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
It appeared in Woman and Home and sold for the princely sum of £15.
After the war she married Graham Hope Pilcher, a former major in The Black Watch and the son of a Dundee jute factory owner, and the couple came to live on Tayside.
She continued to write at the kitchen table using an old typewriter after the birth of five children, one of whom died at birth, and spent years writing romances and short stories for Mills and Boon and later Collins, under the pen name Jane Fraser before The Shellseekers propelled her to stardom.
In 1994, one newspaper calculated she was one of the top 10 richest women in Britain.
She retired from writing in 2000 and was made an OBE for services to literature two years later.
She also had a street named for her in her home village of Longforgan.
Her husband died in 2009 and she is survived by two sons, two daughters, 14 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.
Guests at yesterday’s service were invited to a marquee at Slessor Gardens to share stories of her life.
The gathering featured a performance by the Dundee High School Pipe Band.
A retirement collection was taken in aid of Rachel House Children’s Hospice, Kinross (CHAS).
