The Golden Hours: The Next Instalment in the Cazalet Chronicles

by Louisa Young

The Golden Hours is the brilliant new instalment in the beloved Cazalet Chronicles, started by Elizabeth Jane Howard and now continued by bestselling author - and Elizabeth Jane Howard's niece - Louisa Young.

It's Christmas, 1962, and the Cazalet family are gathering to celebrate. With the family's beloved Home Place long sold, Polly and Gerald have offered up their rambling stately pile, Fakenham Hall, to cousins, parents, siblings and children.


The old guard - Hugh, Edward, Rupert and Rachel - look on as the England they knew and understood fades from view. Cousins Polly, Louise and Clary, now all on the brink of turning forty, are struggling to balance the demands of midlife with their personal desires - however secret. And then there are the young - a new generation growing up in a society on the cusp of real change.

In Louisa Young's spellbinding new novel, familiar faces will reappear, newcomers will be introduced, and the legacy of the Cazalets will continue on into the swinging sixties . . .

The Golden Hours is the sixth novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard and Louisa Young's Cazalet Chronicles. Read from the beginning of the The Light Years, Marking Time, Casting Off, Confusion, and All Change.

Kindle Edition

Expected publication September 3, 2026

About the author

Louisa Young is a history graduate, and worked as a journalist for British national newspapers and magazines for some years. Her first book was A Great Task of Happiness (1995), the life of Kathleen Bruce, her grandmother, the sculptor and wife of Scott of the Antarctic. She followed that with her Egyptian trilogy of novels: Baby Love (which was listed for the Orange Prize), Desiring Cairo and Tree of Pearls. They were followed by The Book of the Heart, a cultural history of our most symbolic organ. She has also published the Lionboy trilogy of children’s novels, written with her then ten-year-old daughter under the pseudonym Zizou Corder and two further children's novels, Lee Raven Boy Thief and Halo. .
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Her 2011 bestseller My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2011 and the Wellcome Book Prize, was a Richard and Judy Book Club choice, and the first ever winner of the Galaxy Audiobook of the Year. It was followed by two sequels, The Heroes' Welcome and Devotion, and a memoir, You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol, about her relationship with the composer Robert Lockhart.

Her most recent book is a novel, Twelve Months and a Day.

She lives in London.

http://www.louisayoung.co.uk/about.html

Reviews

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard over ten years ago and was pleased to see that her niece Louisa Young would be writing a sixth instalment; The Golden Hours.

At the beginning of the book, I appreciated the family breakdown and character list and the reminders.   There are a lot of people to keep track of, especially in the early chapters, and I found myself regularly flicking back to remind myself who was who.

Set in the 1960s, the novel focuses more on the cousins and younger generation. For me, though, it felt as though the story moved quickly from character to character without giving me enough time to become fully invested in any of them. As the novel progressed, I found my interest gradually drifting. I struggled to keep track of all the storylines and, unfortunately, never really formed a strong connection with either the characters or where the story was heading.

That said, this doesn’t mean it won’t work for others, particularly long-time Cazalet fans who will enjoy spending time with this family again. It just wasn’t quite the right book for me.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This is my honest review.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taking on the continuation of the Cazalet saga is an enormous job. Young takes the family into the Sixties with each portion of the book dealing with a season and covering several years. There is quite a lot of scene setting and back tracking to do in the first few sections of the book which means that things don't get going narratively for quite a while. Once the admin is over the book picks up speed and interest. I enjoyed the characters wrangling with the political and social change that the Sixties brings and the challenges to the status quo that throws upon. I felt that one of the main issues of the book was the enormous cast of characters, with a new generation of Cazalets to keep track of. It meant that of necessity there was a lot of short chapters and flitting from person to person. I enjoyed it. I think I will enjoy the next one more.

[Alexia Menday · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely love the Cazalet Chronicles and have read them a few times over the years. I often wondered if someone would be brave enough to continue them.I was really excited and nervous to hear that someone was going to! The fact that Louisa Young has links to the original author made it even more exciting.
I found the list of characters at the start useful( there are many of them!).So that is a positive.
Overall I found it all rather bleak. I felt the characters were self obsessed and I didn't like any of them anymore.
The book just seemed rather dreary and I am now thinking that if I want to read the orginals again they will be tainted by how the characters are in this one.
I believe there are two more books to come. Hopefully they will be better.
Obviously this is just my opinion and others may disagree.

[karla JR · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book less enjoyable than the first. I feel that the narrative lack some details. I appreciate the depth of the story and the compelling female characters. I am planning to continue following the series to see if I enjoy the next book as much as I did the first.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. Feels like the rest of the series. Can't wait for more