Is their life after the Cazalets???

[BaconAndAvocado]

I'm only on the second book in the Cazalets saga but I'm already concerned about what I'll do when I've finished the last one!

Any recommendations about what to read next?

Doesn't need to be a family saga.

I know. So lovely. I need cook and a constant supply of plum tart. And a handkerchief scented with cedar of Lebanon.

What do you need? Comfort read?

Yes, comfort read sounds good. But strictly no chick lit!

Although I usually read a trashy Christmas book once a year.

Oh wow, I read those books decades ago! Thanks for the reminder OP, I might re-read them! Sorry, no use for suggestions, am I. I'm currently hooked on the Strike novels by Robert Galbraith (detective novels written by JK Rowling under a pseudonym). Very different from the Cazalets but I'd highly recommend if you like a crime novel.

Before that I read the three books about a family called the Trotters (again, nothing like the Cazalets) by Jonathan Coe. They're also excellent. The first one is called the Rotters' Club.

Crocus I think you may be my literary twin!

I love the Cormoran Strike novels (have latest on my Christmas list) and also love Jonathan Coe.

Haha! Can I come and raid your bookshelf?

I agree OP the Cazalets are fab. But be warned, the fifth novel, written twenty years after the others, is a real disappointment IMO. When I next reread them - I've read the series at least three times - I'm going to pretend the last one doesn't exist.

I love Jonathan Coe too, and am just working my way through the CS books at the moment. Have really enjoyed the TV version.

For crime, I recommend Peter May's Black House trilogy, Val McDermid's Karen Pirie series, and Ann Cleeves' Shetland books. If you like dark humour with your crime Christopher Brookmyre is a good read.

And if you like Jonathan Coe, I think you might like Iain Banks as well. Not his sci-fi, published under Iain M Banks, but his mainstream novels. The Crow Road is a great one to start with.

Totally agree re book 5.

Have you read EJH's other books, OP? Some of them are more engaging than others. I especially liked Something In Disguise and Getting It Right. I need to get hold of a copy of The Beautiful Visit, which I haven't read for years. I'm a big fan of Jonathan Coe too, and on that basis I'll second the Christopher Brookmyre recommendation. A very different kind of writer, but one who really makes you feel invested in his characters. Very funny too. Start with Quite Ugly One Morning and go chronologically. You don't need to, but I feel it's more orderly.

Oh yeah, about book 5. You'll be tempted. Don't.

I’ve also read the Cazalet books, bar number 5. Was also told not to bother. All I know about it is from a preview chapter at the end of book 4 (a 2013 edition), and also looking at the first couple of pages in a bookshop (mainly to look at the updated family tree).
It’s an interesting series because there’s no real “plot” as such, just following the family members over the years.

Forsyte Saga.

I wish I had the Cazalet books to read over again, not that I haven't re-read all of them (apart from the 5th which I agree isn't worth it). I definitely need a lot of engaging comfort reads to see me through the next several months. Never read Jonathan Coe, will have a look there. I'm reading the latest Robert Galbraith atm and enjoying.
OP have you read any of Rumer Godden's adult fiction? Some is marketed as YA. I highly recommend The Greengage Summer, The River, Kingfishers Catch Fire, and for a really good long read, In this House of Brede.

No, be my read any Rumer Godden. Will take a look.

I moved on to The St Mary’s Chronicles by Jodi Taylor. It’s my go to recommendation for everyone!

Inmyown just had a look at Jodi Taylor. I love books about time travel.
Might put the first book on my Christmas list! Thanks

Jodi Taylor is brilliant. I picked up the recommendation on here and am now evangelical!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54526146

Hope this link works! An interesting article about the true story behind Rumer Godden's The Greengage Summer. The writer was talking on Radio 4 just the other day. Wish I could remember on what programme.

I would also recommend the rest of E J Howard's books and her autobiography - can't remember the title (Postscript?) but it gives fascinating background to 20th Century social and literary life including background to Amis, father and son. Also, Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress), a great, cool writer of middle class English life with intense feeling behind the sang froid. Have you tried Virago Classics like Antonia White , Frost in May and the rest of her quartet? If you have ever seen the film Brief Encounter, the kind of books the female protagonist would have been borrowing are also published by Virago, eg Kate o'Brien, EH Young. A theme is developing here. My first post by the way.

Also just remembered Jean Rhys - The Wide Sargosso Sea (how one madwoman got into an attic) and her novels based on her life trying to make a living as an actress in '30s and '40s Britain and Europe - not fun, not "true to life" but definitely making art out of her own life and perceptions - a 'difficult woman'.

The shell seekers by Rosalind Pilcher is a similar read for me for if I am in need of something comforting.
Reread the cazalets after having each child as such lovely reads.

Was going to suggest Rosamunde Pilcher but have been beaten to it! Elizabeth Darrell and Beryl Kingston are similar in being lovely immersive authors.

Have you read The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley? Similar time and family setting to The Cazalets.

@highlandcoo thanks so much for posting the link to Hugh Schofield's article about the basis for The Greengage Summer; I have read a couple of Rumer Godden's autobiographical books, but nothing referring to that episode. I might have known it was based on her own life!

@cateycloggs EJ Howard's autobiography is Slipstream. I second your recommendation of Elizabeth Taylor, a brilliant writer. I'd also recommend some of Monica Dickens' novels, Mariana has something of the same feel as The Light Years as it is set in the same period. And her autobiographical book One Pair of Feet is wonderful, about her experiences as a nurse during WW2 - a VAD, I think.

Try The Quincunx for a family saga.