Cazalet Chronicles
4 primary works • 7 total works
Book 1
Elegantly constructed and told with exceptional grace, The Light Years is Elizabeth Jane Howard’s modern classic of contemporary English life and the beginning of an extraordinary family saga.
With an introduction by Joanna Lumley.
Every summer, the Cazalet brothers, Hugh, Edward and Rupert, return to the family home in the heart of the Sussex countryside with their wives and children. There, they are joined by their parents and unmarried sister Rachel to enjoy two blissful months of picnics and childish games. But despite the idyllic setting, nothing can be done to soothe the siblings' heartache: Hugh is haunted by the ravages of war, Edward by his latest infidelity and Rupert by his inability to please his demanding wife. Meanwhile, Rachel risks losing her only chance at happiness because of her unflinching loyalty to the family.
Howard’s beautiful saga is the story of three generations of the Cazalet family. Their relatives, their children and their servants – and the fascinating triangle of their affairs . . .
The Light Years is the first novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s bestselling five-part series. Continue the Cazalet Chronicles with Marking Time.
Book 2
Marking Time is the second novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling Cazalet Chronicles.
Home Place, Sussex, 1939. The English family at war . . .
The sunlit days of childish games and family meals are over, as the shadows of war roll in to cloud the lives of one English family.
At Home Place, the windows are blacked out and food is becoming scarce as a new generation of Cazalets takes up the story. Louise dreams of being a great actress, Clary is an aspiring writer, while Polly, is burdened with knowledge and the need to share it.
Read the next books in the series, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change, or start from the beginning with The Light Years.
Book 3
Confusion is the third novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling Cazalet Chronicles.
London and Sussex, 1942. The privileged English family in turmoil . . .
The long, dark days of struggle provide the poignant background to the third book of the Cazalet Chronicles. As the war enters its fourth year, chaos has become a way of life.
Both in the still peaceful Sussex countryside, and in air-raid-threatened London, the divided Cazalets begin to find the battle for survival echoing the confusion in their own lives.
Read the next books in the series, Casting Off and All Change, or start from the beginning with The Light Years and Marking Time.
Book 4
The aftermath of war, and the slow dawning of a new era of freedom and opportunity, shape the destinies of the Cazalets in the fourth volume of this magnificent family saga.
Polly, Clary and Louise, now grown up, are ready to discover the truth about the adult world. While Rupert, Hugh and Edward must make the choices that will decide their own - and the family's - future.
For the Cazalets, and all those close to them, one end is another beginning . . .
Read the next book in the series, All Change, or start from the beginning with The Light Years, Marking Time and Confusion.
Louise, now divorced, becomes entangled in a painful affair; while Polly and Clary must balance marriage and motherhood with their own ideas and ambitions.
Hugh and Edward, now in their sixties, are feeling ill-equipped for this modern world; while Villy, long abandoned by her husband, must at last learn to live independently. But it is Rachel, who has always lived for others, who will face her greatest challenges yet . . .
Events converge at Christmas; as a new generation of Cazalets descend on Home Place. Only one thing is certain: nothing will ever be the same again.
`Elizabeth Jane Howard is one of those novelists who shows, through her work, what the novel is for . . . She helps us to do the necessary thing – open our eyes and our hearts’ Hilary MantelAll Change is the fifth novel in The Cazalet Chronicles. Read from the beginning of the series: The Light Years, Marking Time, Casting Off and Confusion.
Elizabeth Jane Howard's five book chronicle of the upper-middle class Cazalet family begins in 1938, as siblings Hugh, Edward, Rupert and Rachel join together for another family holiday at Home Place, their house in the Sussex countryside.
During the course of The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change, the progress of their lives, and those of their children, will be charted. As their stories unfolds we gain a vivid insight into the lives, hopes and loves of three generations during the Second Word War and beyond.
Dramatised by Sarah Daniels and Lin Coghlan, and with a large cast of actors across all five books, this remarkable radio event adds a new dimension to Elizabeth Jane Howard's extraordinary chronicles. The first four Cazalet novels sold over a million copies, with the fifth being published in 2013, shortly before the author's death.
