Any fellow Cazalet fans?

[MarkingTime2020]

I’m reading my way through Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles at the moment - they’re even better than I’d expected, I’ve hardly been so absorbed in a series of books since childhood (or maybe Ferrante ).

Any other fans around? I should say I’m only half way through the second one (hence my nickname) so no spoilers please!

Can certainly recommend them as lockdown/pandemic reading - they’re mostly (so far) about being isolated in one place during a time of massive global upheaval...

Oh I loved them as a teenager and have been thinking of reclaiming them from my parents’ house and starting again at the beginning...thank you for the reminder!

Ah have fun! I can actually already imagine re-reading them

They are really great stories, and I have read them all, but my advice is please, please, please do not read the final one in the series, as it is poorly written, full of massive plot gaps and just not true to the earlier books.
The characters are not ‘ in character’ and it feels like the publisher just wanted to exploit or monetise her success.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a better description of childhood relationships in the first novel.

Yes I’ve heard really bad things about the last one @Timetospare

Not sure if I can resist reading it though...

Agree on descriptions of childhood and childhood relationships - so good!

I love EJH, I had a binge two years ago, maybe time to revisit The Cazalets. She is a much under rated writer. Martin Amis's stepmother, he has high praise for me.

I couldn’t resist either! (But I wish I had been warned. )
Her biography is probably a better read instead, and she lead a life very like her characters, heart breaking at times.

They are really great stories, and I have read them all, but my advice is please, please, please do not read the final one in the series, as it is poorly written, full of massive plot gaps and just not true to the earlier books

Could not agree more. EJH wrote All Change about twenty years after the others in the series and not long before her death. I choose not to believe what happened to certain characters as their behaviour was so alien to their previous characterisation, and when I next reread the series for the fifth or sixth time I won't be reading the last book. It went straight to the charity shop in fact.

Only surpassed by Death in Pemberley for awfulness from someone who used to be an excellent writer and should have known better.

They are some of my favourite books of all time. I would agree with comments on the last book though - it just isn’t the same. Everyone out of character and glaring continuity errors.

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).

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.

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.

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 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).

Nice to hear from more fellow fans!

I would definitely recommend the Ferrante quartet @GetRid! Really different from Cazalet but also brilliant and gripping.

I’ve nearly finished the second Cazalet book and will glide straight into the third I think (bought all five in a bundle). Am getting so much pleasure from them.

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 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.

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

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

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

Ah thanks all. It's good to know there's something beyond Cazalet :)

I'm getting through them at a fast pace and already feeling a bit sad about when I finish :(

I've tried Nancy Mitford before, never really got into her but maybe now that will change...

One thing that's been interesting in the Cazalet books has been comparing war-time experiences to the pandemic.... quite different obviously but definitely some similarities.

really interesting topic!

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.

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 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?