Talk to me about the Cazalets

Love the Cazalets, but agree the final book is the weakest. A lot of the characters do seem to have had personality transplants - and what was with the bizarre Neville/Juliet storyline? I fear she should have stopped at four books.

If you like the Cazalet series I can also recommend Elizabeth Jane Howard's autobiography, which shows how closely based on her own life the novels were. She put aspects of herself into Louise, Clary and to a lesser extent Polly.

I am re reading the whole series

I really read the last one first as it was on my kindle and have re started the paperbacks . The second one is my favourite and I live the depiction of how they ate and smoked and drank I sometimes wish I lived in those simpler days

I agree that I don't like how people turn out in #5

VIlly I hoped for better for her , it's sad
Same for Louise and why did she forgive the horrible Edward ?
DIana turns into a complete bitch
LYdia disappears for some reason
VIlly sister just fucks off and deserts her

And more !

but a fantastic series of books overall

I've been pronouncing Cazalet in my head the way Venice says but wasn't sure if I was right :) An unusual surname, possibly French origins?

I'm into the last hundred pages of All Change and am getting increasingly irritated at the way she's changed the characters.

------

SPOILER - don't read if you haven't read All Change - what on earth happened to Simon, Hugh's son? He was at Oxford in Casting Off, a confident self-assured well educated young man, wanting a career in politics. Now ten years later he's working as a gardener for his sister, having failed at Cazalets and at being a photographer's assistant working for his cousin Neville (who has been turned into someone deeply unpleasant). I wonder whether she mixed up Simon with Christopher (Villy's sister's son) who became a monk? And he is also now gay, which I didn't think was mentioned before - thought that was Richard, Nora's husband? All Change seems an apt title as so much has been changed. Diana was never a selfish bitch, and yet she is here. Am actually feeling quite cross at the way EJH altered the ending and wish I had left it at Casting Off now.

Sorry, RL Cazalets...

I loved them.

I know some RL Cazelets and they pronounce it Caz-litt.

Absolutely incredible series - inspired me to write a book (which I never finished, but never mind!)

It's Caz-a-lette.

Could anyone help me settle the question of how their name is pronounced? Is it Caz-al-ay or -ette?

Loved all of these although found the fifth one (written a long time after the rest) disappointing.
If you read her autobiography you realise they are closely based on her life and family.
Don't agree that they are"comfort reading"

Oh god yes - I second stopping at book 4. It's almost like she fell out of love with them all between writing 4 and starting 5 and wanted to punish them.

It is written as fiction but reading Howard's memoir Slipstream, there is a lot of factual basis, at least to the life circumstances of the characters. However, Howard is always aiming to get at the truth of how people might be thinking, which gives the characters far more depth, and also makes the plot less to the foreground.

I've always felt Clary, Polly and Louise were different aspects of herself though.

I'm intrigued. Are these real or fictional people?

I'm just over half way through the fifth novel and don't like the way she's changed the personalities of some of the characters. It is peculiar. I think she left it too long between completing the quartet and then deciding to write the fifth one, so much so that she had forgotten details. It has a very different feel and it is rather spoiling my overall enjoyment of the series. However, I will finish it just to see what happens, once and for all.

Purists may want to leave the series at the end of book four and I don't think there would be anything wrong with doing that.

They're amazing! I read them way before I was on mumsnet and was so pleased to find that other people love them too! Also the bbc did a really good radio adaptation that's available on audible.

I've just started the first one and it's blissful. I'm on holiday so perfect but just as good for a snuggly comfort read in Autumn. Don't know what took me so long.

They are about a posh family before, during and after WW2. The garndfather and grandmother have a wood importing business and their daughter and sons and their families end up living in their folks country estate during the war - so you get to know the families and the children and follow them as they grow up. I didn't think it was my cup of tea (wit the psoho family bleating about war and relationship hardships)but I ended up reading all 5 books (agree with others the 5th book is weird) one after another. Comfort reading.

They're simply superb. And yes, I find them comforting too. Everything you imagine England just before and during the war to be.... but by and large at one remove from the horrors of the war (although the family is affected of course).

It's a family saga. And no one quite captures the language and mindset of children as convincingly and as humorously as Howard. You feel really invested in the fully rounded characters.

I really like her novels I think I have got a couple of Cazalet ones but not yet read them as I haven't got the earlier ones!

Jemima - you won't want to part with them once you've read them. I bought mine from The Book People, and I'm keeping them forever. They will be on my shelves waiting for them to be re-read. They are gorgeous.

I liked the first book the most and was really disappointed with the fifth- that's not how I saw a lot of the characters progressing at all and I wish she'd not written it, so long after the others- but I do recommend them. They must be pretty good for me to have been so cross with the final instalment if you know what I mean- if I hadn't really cared about them I wouldn't have been so cross with the way she wrote them in that book!

Still wouldn't want to be or be friends with any of them though.

I don't personally find them hot bath-like as there is so much strong emotion in them, but certainly couldn't put them down.

I also thought the TV adaptation was really terrible and so was the fifth one

They are quite old now so that's probably why you don't hear about them.

Book People have all five books for £5.

And yes they need to be read in order.

Very well written, Gripping (in a way), complex but not confusing.