Any fellow Cazalet fans?

I have just started reading The Light Years and am loving it!

It's great that there's a family tree at the beginning of the book, there are so many characters.

I was just coming on here to write a post about The Cazalet Chronicles! I read the first three a few years ago and have just read the 4th one and I’m halfway through the 5th. Ive really enjoyed them and will be looking into the other suggestions on here.

I really enjoyed the TV adaptation, such a shame they only did the first two (?) books. I think they were going to do all four (the fifth hadn’t been published then) but there was some sort of issue with funding or something.

I’m a big fan. I’ve reread the first four lots of times. The fifth isn’t as good, but quite fun to get a sense of what did they do next. By the way I’m currently watching a boxset of the TV series with a very young Hugh Bonneville . It’s highly recommended, doing a brilliant job in capturing all the characters, as well as the stunning (and horribly uncomfortable I imagine) family home in Sussex (www.imdb.com/title/.

The books are so good at capturing the messiness of married life, aren’t they? Three, or four if you count The Duchy and the Brig, versions of married life. Each with their own compromises. (Not that I’m saying that infidelity is acceptable, obviously.)

love these books

So glad to see this thread. I have just finished reading all 5 books and they have been a wonderful distraction in lockdown. I had The Light Years in my to read pile for ages - library closure forced me to to finally read it and I was hooked. I agree that the 5th book had a different tone and pace and some of the characters behaviour seemed incampatable with the earlier books but I still found it satisfying albeit very downbeat. Shed a few tears along the way. Now looking forward to reading more EJH's work.

Penny Vincenze spoils of time series is similar follows a large fairly wealthy multi generation family from WW1 to the 60s.
I read it before the cazelet chronicles which we read the first book for Wai book clubs and then I just had to read the rest.

I tried re-reading All Change a few years after the first go, but I couldn't go through with it. The first four I hope to read many more times, at decent intervals. I wish I'd made a note of when I last read the series, as it's perfect lockdown reading, but I prefer to ,let some lines slip from the memory before re-reading.
I haven't read Getting It Right for a good while, so that's my latest bedtime book. There was a film of that, which I only saw once, but I remember being fairly disgruntled with it. I think perhaps they altered the ending.

I loved them but found the story of the governess character (Miss Milliment?) quite heartbreaking

I was introduced to these books as a teenager and I’ve always loved them. The first time I read them I sympathised mainly with Polly, the second time in my twenties I like Louise and her friend that she met at cooking school and the last time (I’m early 40s now) I felt so much for all the poor women stuck with all the expectations of the men. I think the last book is very depressing and sad, it didn’t exist the first time I read the series - I wonder if EJH was quite depressed when she wrote it?

I adore them so much, reread them recently. Comforting and truthful and exciting, and human and nuanced and so great. I concur with hating the last one though (especially the Clary plotline, although I found Polly a bit unrealistic too and they described Louise, who'd always had dark hair, as blonde.)

I picked up The Light Years again a few days ago but must finish current book club selection before I begin.
It will be my first reading. I started TLY last year but lost my copy a couple chapters in. So starting afresh.

really interesting topic!

After Julius and Love All are also excellent books by EJH.

They're my absolute favourites. I re-read them every year and dip into the audiobooks are random quite often. Every time I finish them I feel bereft!
I buy copies to give to friends every time I see them in charity shops

I loved the Cazalets too. I got the whole set on a special offer a few years ago. Since then I have read Slipstream and the Artemis Cooper biography which are fascinating to compare with the Cazalets. I’m now starting on The Sea change

I especially love EJH's Something in Disguise. There was a television adaptation with Anton Rodgers and Elizabeth Garvie many years ago, which I loved at the time. Never seen it since.

Other suggestions if you haven't already read them:

EJH's other novels
Jessica Mitford's memoir Hons & Rebels
Nancy Mitford's novels, especially In Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate
MJ Farrell aka Molly Keane - though she didn't write a series

I also recommend reading either her autobiography, Slipstream, or the biography of her by Artemis Cooper. Both books really illustrate how autobiographical the Cazalet books were (the early ones anyway).

Also love the Cazalets and would love to hear of recommendations of other book series equally as gripping. Op mentions the Ferrante books so I'm going to order those as I've been meaning to read them for a while.

I read the final book and enjoyed it a lot. It didn't spoil the earlier books for me, although it wasn't quite the same. I'd say it's well worth reading

I've also just reread these for some pandemic escapism. The first four are excellent, the 5th is not terrible, but previous posters are right. It's not as good as the rest and some of the characters behave in strange ways. It's also that the first four are just so incredibly well written.

I found the BBC adaptation of YouTube so now I'm watching that for comparison.

These are some of my favourite books and I have read them all several times. I disagree about the last book. It isn’t as good as the others but definitely not terrible and it does resolve some of their stories in a way I liked.

Thank you @MarkingTime2020, I've read the first two books in the series and really enjoyed them. Cosy reads, but not twee. And there are some really quite shocking scenes which were handled very carefully, which have stayed with me. Must track down the next two (or three, if I can bear to read the final one).