If I loved the Cazalet Chronicles...

[MrsGru]

What could I read next? I'm on the fourth book, have the fifth ready and waiting and I'm already feeling bereft at the thought of finishing them all... I'm going on holiday soon and want to have some books loaded onto my kindle to look forward to. I have become completely immersed and obsessed with the Cazalets and their lives - if you also loved these books what else would you recommend?

Not read these yet but you might like the Spoils of Time trilogy by Penny Vincenzi or The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer - both are some of the best books I've ever read.

Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher?

I meant to add also RF Delderfield's series which starts with A Horseman Riding By. I remember enjoying their gentle, rural settings.

Gremlin's ate my post, which I thought I'd published.

Sara Donati's series set in colonial America.

Also an older series, the Jalna books (The Whiteoak Chronicles), by Canadian writer Mazo de la Roche. It's been a long time since I read one, but she was a very popular author in the 30s and 40s.

The chamomile lawn by Mary Wesley

The Forsyte Saga

I second RF Delderfield. Absolutely loved those two books. I've been reading something more up-to-date, Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series, 4 books so far - 3 more to come! Both my DD and I have thoroughly enjoyed them.

Childhood memoirs rather than fic, but from a similar background - Emma Smith's The Great Western Beach and Dirk Bogarde's Great Meadow.

Maybe the Balkan trilogy by Olivia manning? There's also the Levant trilogy by her but I haven't read that.

I'm actually having a go at The remembrance of things past by Proust and I think as a male novelist he's almost up to Howard standards

Please just don’t read the final one in the saga, it is really disappointing and sadly I think just written for the money. The characters act completely out of character and the background richness and truth is missing.

I’ve just read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. whilst not as long as the Cazalets, rewarding in it’s own way, set around a family in Korea and Japan, from around 1900s to late 80s. Fascinating tale about a culture and history of which I knew nothing.

Oh still not ready I'm glad to find someone else who's read Pachinko, I really enjoyed it.

Oh, yes, the Camomile Lawn and subsequent books.

Atonement

Life After Life, Kate Atkinson

Brideshead Revisitef

A friend picked it as our book club choice last month, and I’m so glad she did because I’d never have read it otherwise. I really loved the sisters in law, and their relationship with each other. Women showing their strength when United and the power of love and friendship.

That was for @annandale

Anything by Dorothy Whipple.

Thank you for all these ideas!
I did wonder if the final Cazalet book might be a bit different as it was written so much later... Perhaps I will take a break after book 4 and try some thing different first....
I have read Coming Home a while ago and really liked that.
I will look up the Camomile Lawn and some of the other ideas from here - thanks!

You may want to read her biography instead, the one by Artemis Cooper called Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence

The Susan Howatch family sagas like Penmarric, Cashelmara, The Wheel of Fortune and the Rich are Different. Good thumper reads and based loosely on historical royal dynasties like the Plantagenets.

Placemarking to check out some of these.

Agree about the fifth book, there was just no heart in it. And some clanging errors, including a reference to one of the women who had lost a child - only it wasn’t her!

Anything by Julian fellowes all his books are wonderful.
Also my last duchess can’t remember the author but they are the same kind of genre

I am also reading The Cazalets. She's written other books which I got as a set from the book people a while back.
I love Kate Morton. Not a series but good chunky reads.

I loved the Cazalet Chronicles and glad that she managed to publish the closing one.
I haven't read other books by EJH as i'm scared I might not love them like i did the Cazalets.
The Forsyte Saga would be my recommendation.
Quite different but a chronicle is the Patrick Melrose book set.
I stumbled across this by accident - the library reserved the second one of the set for me in a misunderstanding and I didn't 'get' it and gave up, but started the first one then read the others.

Mike EJH's Something in Disguise is a wonderful book. It was also a brilliant TV series many years ago.