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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

What we're reading

Books if you loved the Cazelet Chronicles

29 replies

Freddorika · 28/02/2017 11:22

I wish I hadn't read them so that I could read them again

Can anyone recommend anything?

OP posts:

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loinnir · 28/02/2017 13:02

Persephone books have a wide range of authors writing around the time period the Cazalet's is set in. My favourite "Persephone" author is Dorothy Whipple who wrote fantastically well observed family stories.

Susan Howatch wrote big, thumper family sagas such as Penmarric, Wheel of Fortune and the Rich are Different.

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson is set in WW2

The Dreaming Suburb and The Avenue Goes to War (sequel) by RF Delderfield are set before and during WW2 and are about residents in a street in a leafy suburb of the oustskirts of London - a mix of lower middle class families and a working class family. They are not posh like the Cazalet's but there are similar themes.

Nan0second · 28/02/2017 13:03

In farleigh field is what I'm reading currently and definitely has a cazalet feel to it!

Clawdy · 28/02/2017 13:58

Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase is in a similar vein, and a wonderful read. So is Aren't We Sisters? by Patricia Ferguson.

SatsukiKusakabe · 28/02/2017 16:20

I didn't get on with the Cazelets, but I did really enjoy Life After Life, and thought it very much written in a similar style and about the same era. Just a bit more going on for me, but would recommend if you haven't read it already.

MimsyBorogroves · 28/02/2017 16:28

Coming Home by Rosalind Pilcher? Still a guilty pleasure!

Freddorika · 28/02/2017 21:29

Thank you. I liked life after life but didn't love it.

Have ordered a couple of these, thank you

OP posts:

BestIsWest · 28/02/2017 22:26

Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield.

annandale · 28/02/2017 22:31

For the wartime era and the close investigation of people; The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning.
For the sadness; In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill.
For the tangle of interlocking stories, the physical details and the snobbery : Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
And yes, for the soap opera element, Rosamunde Pilcher. I've just read the Shell Seekers for the nth time but Coming Home is much soapier, in fact where is my copy...

HappydaysArehere · 03/03/2017 00:22

Am I the only person who has found the Cazelets boring? Read the first one and was truly glad to have reached the end.

BestIsWest · 03/03/2017 05:57

No, Happy. After a promising start, l found them interminably dull.

JemimaMuddledUp · 03/03/2017 06:11

I struggled to finish the first one so not just you Happy. I really wanted to like them too.

OP have you read any Elena Ferrante? I'm currently reading My Beautiful Friend and it reminds me of the bits I did enjoy of the first Cazalet book.

HapShawl · 03/03/2017 06:15

If you want a series that covers a place/family through time, then Norah Lofts' House Trilogy is excellent - it covers about 600 years in the same house

Igneococcus · 03/03/2017 06:27

I'm 78% through the second book of the Elena Ferrante series and I love it now but almost gave up during the first (My brilliant friend). I find it a much more difficult read than the Cazalet Chronicles but very satisfying.

SatsukiKusakabe · 03/03/2017 07:27

I found the first one dull too and didn't get to the end or read any more.

SatsukiKusakabe · 03/03/2017 07:28

I found the first one dull too and didn't get to the end or read any more.

Bolshybookworm · 03/03/2017 07:30

Try the Tin Toys trilogy by Ursula Holden.

loveday222 · 03/03/2017 07:47

I loved the Cazalet books. My guilty pleasure is Penny Vincenzi she's has written lots of 'family saga' books, easy compelling slightly trashy but wonderful!

Freddorika · 03/03/2017 07:59

Thanks! I have ordered the shell seekers and also the Ballad and the source by Rosamund lehmann which sounds fantastic.

OP posts:

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 03/03/2017 08:02

Elizabeth Darrell's "At the going Down Of the Sun" series is very like the Cazalets. I also enjoy Beryl Kingston and Rosamund Pilcher.

AstrantiaMajor · 03/03/2017 08:38

R.F delderfield writes so beautifully. I read the first one which starts at the end of the Boar War. Now on the second one. He characters just live right in your heart. I am listening to them on Audible. The narrator accents for the different characters are incredible,

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 03/03/2017 23:07

I also just remembered Kate Morton. Her books, particularly The House At Riverton and The Distant Hours, are really well written and perfect for curling up with a mug of tea.

BestIsWest · 04/03/2017 08:39

Diary is f An Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster is very good too.

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woodhill · 04/03/2017 08:44

Loved the Cazalets particularly the last one which was set in the late 50s

Kate Morton is very good.

May try some of the suggested titles. I wish Susan Howatch would write a new novel.

AstrantiaMajor · 04/03/2017 10:41

Not really a Saga, but I loved The Perfume Collecor. A woman inherits a house in France and sets out to find the back story of the owner. It is very moving and well written.

Freddorika · 04/03/2017 12:16

I've just started the Shell Seekers. Perfect for curling up with. Thank you!

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