The Cazalet Chronicles: Five Novels in One Collection

Cazalet Chronicles #1-5

by Elizabeth Jane Howard

The complete multigenerational saga of an upper-middle-class British family before, during, and after World War II.
 
As war clouds gather on England’s horizon, the Cazalet siblings, along with their wives, children, and servants, prepare to leave London and join their parents at their Sussex estate, Home Place. Thus begins the decades-spanning family saga that has engrossed millions of readers.
 
The Light Years : Hugh, the eldest of the Cazalet siblings, was wounded in France and is haunted by recurring nightmares and the prospect of another war. Edward adores his wife, a former dancer, yet he’s incapable of remaining faithful. Rupert desires only to fulfill his potential as a painter, but finds that love and art cannot coexist. And devoted daughter Rachel discovers the joys—and limitations—of intimacy with another woman.
 
Marking Time : Narrated primarily through the voices of teenagers Louise, Polly, and Clary, the second novel details the continuing story of their fathers. With the outbreak of war, Edward is determined to do his bit for England. But Hugh, injured in World War I, must sit back and watch other men fight for their country, including his brother Rupert, who enlists and goes missing in action.
 
Confusion : As the world reels in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the Cazalets are dealt a tragic blow, and a new generation struggles to find peace with each other, a peace that seems to prove as elusive as it is in the larger world.
 
Casting Off : The war is over, but for the Cazalets—and England—the challenges continue. Against the backdrop of a crumbling empire, the family soldiers on in the wake of disappointment, heartbreak, and tragedy. But the family comes together again as three generations of Cazalets struggle to hold onto Home Place, the beloved Sussex estate that has been their refuge and their heart.
 
All Change : In 1956, the death of eighty-nine-year-old matriarch Kitty “the Duchy” Cazalet marks the end of an era—and the commencement of great change for the family. And Home Place, the beloved Sussex estate where the Cazalets have gathered for years, is now a beloved relic that, with its faded wallpaper and leaky roof, has aged along with its occupants.
 
A rich historical read for those who love E. M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, or Downton Abbey , this is the story of a family “[rendered] thrillingly three-dimensional by a master craftsman” ( The Sunday Telegraph ).
 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Historical, British Literature, Family, World War II

2250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 18, 2014

About the author

Elizabeth Jane Howard, CBE, was an English novelist. She was an actress and a model before becoming a novelist. In 1951, she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first novel, The Beautiful Visit. Six further novels followed, before she embarked on her best known work, a four novel family saga (i.e., The Cazalet Chronicles) set in wartime Britain. The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off were serialised by Cinema Verity for BBC television as The Cazalets (The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion and Casting Off). She has also written a book of short stories, Mr Wrong, and edited two anthologies.

Her last novel in The Cazalet Chronicles series, "ALL CHANGE", was published in November 2013.

Reviews

[Luffy Sempai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen King once said that writing can be learned, but can never be taught. Well, here come the Cazalet Chronicles, to - almost - make a fool out of King.

This series of books, bound in one omnibus has taught me so much...about people, about history, about writing, about time, and about time too! What can I say? There is a corner of my heart where the five books combo have displaced the other books to stay as my favorite.

We'll see if that lasts. This story is too vast to be summed up in a review. I have lost the ability to write long reviews, but I've tempered that with the newly gained inclination to write lengthier stories.

You could do worse than read this series. The author, Elizabeth Jane Howard lived a long life (nearly 91 years), but has created characters that will live much longer than that, in our minds.

[Jane Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm afraid I fell into this five-volume family saga at the start of a two-week holiday, and couldn't stop until I had finished them all. I thought it was brilliant. She said apparently that she wrote it to chronicle the changes in women's lives brought about (mainly) by the Second World War. It did that. But as a chronicle of English life quite frankly I think it knocks Trollope into a cocked hat. Not least because the servants are not ancillary to the family story, but part of it, because they were part of the family. And that of course was a big part of the change. The young men were called up, and the young women went into the factories and other war service, and never came back to serve in the great houses. And those who had the wealth that had enabled them to own and live in these houses were often exposed as not really worthy of this fantastic privilege. Oh and like all good English novels it is about houses as much as it is about people. And some people were gay, and some had mental health problems, and there were the general issues about sexuality that plague English life to this day. Though how people did not clock that a woman with cropped hair who wore men's shirts and ties and called herself Sid was lesbian I'll never know. It's a wonderful portrait, on several levels and in several aspects, of married life too, and the sexuality of that. There are too many characters. A lot of children, who rather blur into one after a while. There were times when I couldn't quite remember who was who with some of the more peripheral characters. But these are small things. It was terrific. Elizabeth Jane Howard's sometime stepson Martin Amis credits her with helping him to be a writer, and talks about her "penetrating sanity" (I think it was) which I find excellent. We should all read Elizabeth Jane Howard.

[Miss M]

All 5 books on sale for $2.99

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This box set of audio CD’s is cleverly packaged, so the actual case is the size of a double CD box, with the twelve enclosed discs stacked on top of each other. I have never read the original five book saga by Elizabeth Jane Howard and, obviously, a drama version of the entire storyline will cut corners but I am unable to compare the two without reading the books (which I now intend to do as I enjoyed this so much). The novels about the Cazalet family consisted of: The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change and were published between 1990 and 2013. The radio plays taken from the novels were broadcast between 2013 and 2014 on Radio 4 and it is wonderful to have the entire series collected in one package. I do enjoy audio books, especially when I am driving (which I do a lot) and I particularly enjoy audio plays – rather than books just narrated by one person – so this was a particular treat for me. Especially with books I am not familiar with, I find it easier to follow the story when there are different actors for each character’s voice and I do enjoy the BBC radio plays very much.

The story itself follows a family over ten years from the late 1930’s all the way up to the 1950’s and begins with the family congregating at the family country manor for the summer holidays. Immediately, we are thrown into their marriages, affairs, their children and the various interplay between the characters. These range from matriarch Duchy through to Zoe, the young new wife of son Rupert, and disgruntled stepmother to young Neville and the deeply unhappy Clary. Home Place in Sussex in 1937 sees the shadow of WWI still falling over the characters, but we are aware of more storm clouds coming as the Second World War approaches. As the saga continues, the storyline switches from one generation to the next, almost seamlessly, as the children grow and have lives of their own. The fifth book in the saga sees the family again converge at the family home and brings the saga full circle. This is a satisfying and often moving drama, well acted and an excellent driving companion.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the five volumes of the Cazalet series decades ago and didn’t remember much about it. When I saw that the BBC had produced an audio dramatization of the series, I thought it would be an entertaining listen. It sure is, and it’s pretty wild in ways that I can’t believe I didn’t remember.

The book starts out as a straightforward potboiler-y WW2-era family drama of the sort you might expect to see on Masterpiece Theater, but then the crazy jumps up on the stage. The pubescent Louisa is felt up and french kissed by her own father! She fears that her mother, Villy, who has never shown her normal maternal warmth, will not support her if she tells her about her father. So this happens a couple of times before Louise fights him off and screams at him that she hates him. However, just a few years later, when Louise is grown up, all that incestuous pedo stuff is apparently forgotten and she gets along just fine with her father In fact, although in the wake of her adolescent problems with her father she develops a much better relationship with Villy, that also seems to be forgotten once she’s grown up. She tells Villy about going off on vacation with her father and his new wife, callously ignoring how that would make Villy feel. It’s never explained why Louise’s feelings toward her parents change. Maybe that comes out more in the books, but I’d still find it very hard to understand how a young woman can just go back to a loving relationship with her father after (obviously rightly) hating him for being all pervy with her.

It’s a miracle that Louise’s father, Edward, has time for attempted incest, considering his very busy personal sideline in adultery with women outside the family, complete with impregnating one of his mistresses. (There are actually unintended pregnancies all over the place, by the way, thankfully not all by Edward.)

Louisa marries young, to Michael, an upper-class artist quite a bit older who shortly after the wedding has to join the armed forces. Michael is creepily close to his mother, who is overbearing to Louisa. When Louisa has a baby almost immediately, she has postpartum depression, though of course it isn’t called that at the time. Her mother-in-law tells her to snap out of it, hurry up and have another child, and if Louisa doesn’t that she will gladly stab Louisa to death! As long as we’re going to be that crazy, I want to hear more about it, but we never do.

Despite my finding aspects of this story bizarre and troublesome, overall I enjoyed the dramatization very much. Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley from Downton Abbey, among many other acting credits) is the narrator and there is a full cast excellently voicing all the characters’ dialog. The production includes sound effects as well, so that you feel like you’re listening to the audio of a film.

[Franziska Self Fisken · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cazalet Chronicles are among my absolute favourite British books from the 20th Century. Her characters are varied and convincing. Her descriptions are evocative. She describes understandingly the glamorous and elegant, but also sympathetically those whose lives are or were constrained due to lack of opportunity due to environment, race, class, poverty and/or gender.
She is also excellent at describing children's thoughts, feelings, opinions and conversations. She is one of those rare adults who did not forget what it felt like to be a child or teenager. She was probably close to her stepson Martin Amis. She also describes maternal love convincingly. In fact, on reading her biography online I realise how biographical these books are and the characters and incidents are derived from her own life.
If you like Downton Abbey, you will probably enjoy this too. However it digs deeper than Downtown Abbey.

[Hermien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a delight to spend more time with the Cazalet family and a good refresher to now read the fifth book in the series. This audio "play" is very well done.

[Amy Beck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: this review is full of spoilers!!

After pre-reading reviews here on Goodreads, I was determined not to let the mental organization of character names deter me from enjoying the book. I, therefore, accepted names and relationships as they arrived--and there were many--and tried not to stress and just become familiar as I continued on.

At first, however, the confusion of characters kept me somewhat disengaged. The author's style and technique throughout the novel of referring to people without always cluing me in as to whom I was following, but rather picking up from what felt like the middle of a private thought, was frustrating. I often felt almost as if I'd interrupted them when I arrived on their page. I'd be three pages later before I was sure exactly which character was being discussed. Gradually, as I continued on, the storyline became more and more engaging as I became familiarized with each person and their situation. Into the novel, I felt completely absorbed and involved in the lives of these characters. There was charm, insight, frustration, and so much more...endearing each one to me. All the heartfelt components that fully filled out each personality were realized, and I grew to dearly love this family with all their promises and shortcomings.

I wanted this story to continue on for each character. My main wish is that, hopefully, Edward dumps that atrocious Diana and, in my wildest dreams, has the guts and receives forgiveness to return to Villy and become a real father to their son. I've seen this happen in real life--where an abandoned spouse forgives the repetitive, wayward husband and their marriage is successfully rekindled. My biggest disappointment was how my faith in wise and wonderful Archie eroded in minutes after a shocking revelation that I could never have anticipated. Clary was possibly my favorite character of all. Her stunning writing ability, and her almost blase innocence combined with her energetic, creative mind enchanted me. I looked forward to her relentless faith and the ongoing adventures she imagined her father endured while MIA. Even while everyone else gave up, Clary's convictions did not waver. She was so touching, and she was so precious and precocious.

Mostly, I want to remember how desperately I wanted the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, or maybe Tinkerbell to wave a magic wand and have a white knight rescue the family and make the heartache go away... I kept thinking perhaps Louise's wealthy lover step in and save the family home.

For me, the sign of a good or great book is when you want to know what happens yet you never want it to end. That's the emotion this series of novels kindled and "Kindled" in me.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up expecting (and needing) aristo-porn, that is, tales about afternoon tea, kedgeree for breakfast, drawing rooms and the view from downstairs. A world 100% fictional to me which I only have to assume that used to exist outside the genre of costume drama. The Cazalet novels do start off like that (The Light Years) but then what starts out as humorous turns very dark. The third novel, Confusion, was almost unreadable for me. I needed light relief but got instead a morality tale, dripping with bitterness, about what happens to girls who believe their elders and betters when it comes to men.
Nobody in any of the first four books has a happy love relationship between equals; even the characters who come the closest, Sybil and Hugh, end tragically. One character, Louise, becomes a showcase of gender-based violence both structural, economical, social, obstetric, sexual and psychological... all within a "very good marriage"... you could use "Confusion" as a femicide textbook. Young girls have crushes, either hopeless or exploitative, with men 20 years their seniors. Grown women maneuver desperately to get men to support them financially. Women's sexuality is ruthlessly repressed until (and while) girls are chucked blind into marriage beds. And when there is any sex, there's no pleasure for the women - indeed that's the opening paragraph of the whole series. Again, the only sexually satisfying relationships for a female character - Zoe- end in horror and stifling secrets.
The subtitle of these novels could be "the English stiff upper lip means inner death". Aside from the nightmare scenarios for women (no positive paths happen to anyone), the boys and men also suffer: torture at boarding schools, violently repressed traumas, humiliations sexual and economic, war wounds, maiming, impossible gay love, bereavement, the impossibility of having frank and equal relationships with wives, estrangement, exploitation. But they have more money and more agency than the female characters; some even get adventures.
I'm hoping the fifth book will contain something of an upside but so far, at the start of the fourth book, it's frankly too much darkness for me to keep reading.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like to listen to audiobooks and you enjoyed Downton Abbey, golly, do I have a treat for you. This wasn’t really a proper book- it’s kind of a radio play based on a BBC miniseries based on five books, the Cazalet Chronicles. It’s basically a soap opera with lots of history in it done by really good actors. It was an absolutely fabulous thing to listen to as I lost any excitement I ever had about the 2020 Democratic primary as Elizabeth Warren dropped out and my heart broke.

There are lots of family members to get to know, so you have to concentrate in the first hour, but the distinctive actors make this easier. At the center of the book are three little girls, cousins, who grow up as the story goes on, but there are their aunts and uncles to get to know too, and a few family friends. It begins just before World War II and continues into the postwar period. They’re posh, not titled, but there’s old money, a family business and a large country estate. The characters are well-developed and the dialogue is wonderful, especially between the children. The marriages are often troubled, and there’s a lot of British stiff upper lip in evidence. Everyone tries to bear it, whatever it is, in silence, and when they break down and sob, there’s a great deal of apology in view. There’s a lot about the patriarchy, too, how much it sucked for women, and also for men. Also, surely more mentions of hot water bottles than any other book in history ever. I can only think that the author of the original books lived in a very drafty old house and was constantly chilly as she wrote.

Oh, and if you use Multnomah County Library, here's the link: https://multcolib.bibliocommons.com/i...

[Janine · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK the family detail was lovely and the writing pleasant to read but I just kept waiting for something to happen. And despite five books, not very much did! Time passed, individual's passed but there were not really key moments other than pre/post war. Gentle passage through time.

[Elze De Vries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meeslepend en verslavend. Ook nu ik alles uit heb blijf ik mij afvragen hoe het de meesten van hen verder is vergaan, vooral Louise, Polly en Clary.

[Alice Gilmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect and moving story of an upper-middle family before, during and after WW2. If you can bear the unconscious snobbery (and you should) it is a place to lose yourself for many hours.

[Amy Borgstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

After I spent way too much time binging the entire Downton Abbey series, and the three movies, this series was recommended as something I would like. Which I have liked, but not loved. First of all five boos is A LOT. I think I have been held hostage by the Cazalets since June or something. For the most part well written, although typos start to show up in Book Five. Perhaps the author also began to lose interest. With just enough plot interest to make it impossible to just … stop, I was relieved when this particular marathon was over! Happy New Year of reading!

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of my favorite audio series of all time. I love the original book series for its humanity and depth of characters. The BBC dramatic cast brought all the characters to life. If there was anything I didn't like it was the fact that it just felt too real. Relationship ends don't get neatly tied up. Characters are not fully resolved. But that is the beauty of the series as well as the audio dramatization. The Cazalets feel like a real family and no real family has a convenient and poetic end.

NOTE: Many of the relationships are highly complex and on the mature side. There are several affairs between characters, a same sex relationship between two women, and one male character in particular who is in multiple affairs and also one of the most troubling scenes where he molests his teenage daughter. All of these emotional (and sometimes disturbing) relationships are handled both in the books and in the audio with admirable empathy and understanding. It doesn't gloss over consequences or problems. It opens a window into the mental processes of each character, revealing why they do what they do. The entire series is a great example of empathy and I recommend with that (strong) caveat.

[Kate Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've wanted to read this series for ages, because I've heard such good things about Elizabeth Jane Howard, but I was put off by the idea of reading five novels about an upper middle class English family, when there is so much else out there to read. In the end I compromised by listening to the BBC adaptation - still not short, it runs at twelve and a half hours, but I was able to listen as I cooked tea, drove, crocheted and became completely immersed in the Cazalet world. The adaptation was brilliant of course, Penelope Wilton was the narrator and plenty of recognisable actors embodied each character. It begins as the First World War is looming, and focuses around the Cazalet's country home which moves from being a holiday get away to a permanent residence for many of the family. There are three sons and a daughter, and we get to love them all, and their various husbands and wives, mistresses, lovers and children. The story moves through both world wars and leaves you with a profound sense of sadness really at the universal hardships of life for anyone of any class.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book with trepidation as the full volume is hefty but once I was drawn into the family and all its wonderful and complex characters I was hooked.
The Cazalets are a large family who once a year reside at the large house owned by the Duchess and her husband the Brig.
Each volume explores a different time in all their lives including the prewar period, during WW2 and afterwards.
Each character is finely honed and we feel like we know them personally and want to know what happens to them and get a real feeling of observing them change as people and how their life situations change as they grow older.
The descriptions of the surroundings are wonderful and you can almost smell the honeysuckle on a summers evening from the text.
I was sad when I had finished the saga and was left wishing there was more.

[Imo O’Flanagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guilty pleasure. Packed with drama and absolutely love it. I did need to take a break between books as they’re quite big and a lot going on though.

Only qualm is there are a LOT of characters but there is a family tree and key at the front of each book so an resolution.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful series

This is a collection of five novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard, written between 1990 - 2013. The author was born in 1923 and died in 2014, so she lived during the period of her fictional Cazalet family that is covered in the novels - 1936 through 1959, a time of vast change in England and in the way of life in its people and culture. The original Cazalets, Brig and the Duchy, are of the gilded age. They established the business at which the men worked, and the large family house in Sussex, Home Place. Their two oldest sons, Hugh and Edward, served in the First World War, and went to work in the family's fine wood business. Their daughter Rachel had not married and lived at home. The youngest son Rupert, was too young to fight in WWI.

As the first novel, "Marking Time," begins, the Cazalets are living comfortable lives with London homes, nannies for the children, and holidays at Home Place, along with various friends. It's heaven for the children, and a busy, happy break for the adults, who have developed their own routines and traditions. The three subsequent novels run through the war and post-war years, the hardships, and the changes. The final book skips some 9 or 10 years, and wraps things up.

I've reviewed each of the novels separately, but this is an overview of the series, and the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. I don't want to spoil the story or its elements, but it's a beautiful, well-written story, quintessentially British, and with very human characters, wisdom, and warmth. While nostalgic, it doesn't glamorize the pre-war years, or the heroism of the war. It's called a modern classic for a reason.

[Betsy Milan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second reading almost as good as the first

I first read this series in the trade paperback edition more than ten years ago. When the electronic "boxed" edition came out at a greatly reduced price, I could not resist purchasing it and rereading the books.
There were a few discrepancies I had not originally noticed. The change in how Edward and Guy view the Southampton property is never explained; in the final scenes Louise is grouped with the children though she is older than both Polly and Clary and she has been married and is a mother herself; these are just a few that I can point out without giving too much away. Nonetheless, it remains a wonderful narrative of the life of an upper middleclass English family in the mid-twentieth century. I do feel that the sections on the war years are much more successful than the post-war years, but both are wonderful.
One sour--very sour--note on the electronic edition. This was apparently published using OCR software with no one carefully proofing the entire project. It starts out fine, gets gradually worse until it becomes terrible, and then seems to miraculously straighten out. About half through, many m's are rendered th ( "men" becomes "then", "me" becomes "the.," ) There are many other similar errors. Trying to read this gobbledygook becomes annoying. It has nothing to do with the writing and everything to do with the electronic publishing. For this reason I have reduced my rating by one star.

[Wendy Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cazalet Chronicles 5 books - Elizabeth Jane Howard - R (61 of 102) 13 8 21
These books should come with a health warning. Highly addictive and now I have chugged my way through the set (nearly 2k pages) I am feeling somewhat bereft. Wonderful comfort food. I like her style; she doesn't announce who she is writing about but lets you recognise it from what they say or do. And by the end of five books there's a warm familiarity about them. I read all five straight through and I wonder if I'd feel the same if I'd only read one at a time; I think I might have found the endings a little abrupt. A saga that follows the extended family from the eve of WW2 to the late 50's. Affluence built on the timber trade slowly declining (but not an issue till the last book). Lovely long summers with a country house full of parents, 3 brothers and their wives; their sister. Children. Cousins. Affairs. Generations growing up. People falling in wrong with the wrong people and then eventually it comes right.

[Jonathan Gage · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long, enjoyable series of books that chronicles the Cazalet family and their servants from about 1937 to 1958. Writing such a series is a huge undertaking and I am full of admiration for Elizabeth Jane Howard for completing such a compelling (well mostly) family saga. She switches narrators all the time but it seems to work and you do get to know most of the characters very well warts and all. There are a lot of characters and by the end I was finding all the new children a bit confusing but sometimes my own grandchildren do that so...

The books are a social history of those crucial times and are clearly based on Howard’s own family and experiences. Most of the characters are very real and complex which is a credit to her writing. Like other readers I do find it hard at the finish as I have been reading the series for the best part of two months now.

I did read Cynthia Harrod Eagles books, yes all of them, and enjoyed that series also. I wish I could find more series that go on for a while. At the very least it makes the choice of “the next book” much easier.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Satisfying Read

I love long books and series because I hate for a good story to end. These five novels are amazing. Each of the main characters has a distinct personality and I began to think of them as people that I knew personally. During and after WWII in England were trying times for most and I now have a better understanding of the struggles endured. I’m glad that I read this on Kindle because I was unfamiliar with lots of the terms and things mentioned and very often used the Kindle dictionary, as well as Google to get an understanding. For example, I’d never heard of a monkey puzzle nor a Gin and It. All my emotions were engaged. I laughed, cried and loved with the characters. The author ended the series very well. Leaving me with a long sigh of satisfaction.

[KathyStroh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am pretty sure I owned at least the first three books in this series years ago, and had enjoyed them. So I picked up this collection when it went on sale on Amazon recently, started reading- and none of it was at all familiar. However, I really enjoyed them, it's kind of a general family drama but I found the characters well-drawn and mostly likeable. Some of them don't get along and make mistakes and even do bad things, and that felt very real to me.

It seemed like the story ended at the end of book 4, but it turned out there was still more to tell and book 5 was also really good.

[Mary Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give it 6 stars I would. As I closed this book for the last time it was as though I were closing a chapter on my own life. This book was my reward at days end and I savored every page. It is about a British family pre-WWII until 1958. The Cazalets are a family of mother, father, 3 brothers, 1 sister and their offspring. You will journey with them through the war, their loves, their sadness, their joys. It is one of the best books I've ever read.

[Phyll · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a five book series following three generations of an upper-class British family from the late 1930’s to the mid 1950’s. It is interesting to see how such a family lived through war-time in London and then the aftermath of WWII. The author makes heavy use of conversations among the family members especially the children while providing very little in the way of a plot. The books are a continuing narrative of the family members’ strengths of character and their weaknesses of character.

[Helle Hennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read all 5 books. In the first book you get to know the characters starting just before the Second World War following a well off family and how the war impacts them. A bit of a slow burner in the first book but then I did get hooked and got into the characters and ended up reading and following the character through several decades. Shows that no matter whether a rich or poor family they can be dysfunctional!

[Gail A Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved these books because I am an Anglophile and enjoy books about life during the world wars. I especially liked the writer including children's life and antics a nd following them to their adulthood. There were some proofreading errors that didn't make sense such as the word then being used instead of men which was evident from the sentence. If you liked Downton Abbey you will like these books. If also re commend the British TV series starting Hugh Bonneville as High Cazalet.

[Jean Labrador · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Excellent Series

This series of five books about the Cazalet family was excellent. Each book was wonderful and lead to the next faultlessly. I was reading far into the early hours of morning until the series was finished. I highly recommend this set of books to anyone who enjoys books about English families and the WWII era.

[Lisajo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Became very involved with the characters in this series

Glad I persevered through this long yet satisfying series. The detail of what England endured before and during Ww2 was an epiphany and a shock. My vocabulary was also greatly improved! I will be thinking about this tale for quite some time!