The Light Years is a modern classic of twentieth-century English life in the countryside, and is the first novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard's extraordinary, bestselling family saga The Cazalet Chronicles. Every summer, the Cazalet brothers - Hugh, Edward and Rupert - return to the family home in the heart of the Sussex countryside with their wives and children. There, they are joined by their parents and unmarried sister Rachel to enjoy two blissful months of picnics, games, and excursions to the coast. But despite the idyllic setting, nothing can be done to soothe the siblings' heartache: Hugh is haunted by the ravages of the Great War, Edward is torn between his wife and his latest infidelity, and Rupert is in turmoil over his inability to please his demanding wife. Meanwhile, Rachel risks losing her only chance at happiness because of her unflinching loyalty to the family. With cover artwork exclusively designed by artist Luke Edward Hall, this is an edition to treasure. Continue the dazzling historical series with Marking Time, Marking Time and Confusion. 'Charming, poignant and quite irresistible . . . to be cherished and shared' - Times

Honest and unflinching, this book illuminates the literary world of the latter half of the 20th century, as well as giving a personal insight into the life of Elizabeth Jane Howard.

The Second World War has finally ended and so begins a new era of freedom and opportunity for the Cazalet family. Elizabeth Jane Howard's magnificent Cazalet Chronicles continues with Casting Off, the fourth novel in the saga. The Cazalet cousins are now in their twenties, trying to piece together their lives in the aftermath of the war. Louise is faced with her father's new mistress and her mother's grief at his betrayal, while suffering in a loveless marriage of her own. Clary is struggling to understand why her beloved father chose to stay in France long after it was safe to return to Britain, and both she and Polly are madly in love with much older men. Polly, Clary and Louise must face the truth about the adult world, while their fathers - Rupert, Hugh and Edward - must make choices that will decide their own, and the family's, future. With cover artwork exclusively designed by artist Luke Edward Hall, this is the heartbreaking and heartwarming fourth instalment of Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling series. It is followed by All Change, the fifth and final book in the series. 'Charming, poignant and quite irresistible . . . to be cherished and shared' - The Times

All Change is the fifth and final volume in Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling The Cazalet Chronicles, where the old world begins to fade from view and a new dawn emerges. It is the 1950s and as the Duchy, the Cazalets' beloved matriarch, dies, she takes with her the last remnants of a disappearing world - houses with servants, class, and tradition - in which the Cazalets have thrived. Louise, now divorced, becomes entangled in a painful affair, while Polly and Clary must balance marriage and motherhood with their own ideas and ambitions. Hugh and Edward, now in their sixties, are feeling ill-equipped for this modern world, while Villy, long abandoned by her husband, must at last learn to live independently. But it is Rachel, who has always lived for others, who will face her greatest challenges yet. As the Cazalets descend on Home Place for Christmas, only one thing is certain: nothing will ever be the same again. With cover artwork exclusively designed by artist Luke Edward Hall, this is the heartbreaking and heartwarming final instalment of Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling series. 'She is one of those novelists who shows, through her work, what the novel is for . . . She helps us to do the necessary thing - open our eyes and our hearts' - Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall

Beautifully and poignantly told, Marking Time is the second novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling Cazalet Chronicles. Home Place, Sussex, 1939. As the shadows of the Second World War roll in, banishing the sunlit days of childish games and trips to the coast, a new generation of Cazalets take up the family's story. Louise, who dreams of becoming a great actress, finds herself facing the harsh reality that her parents have their own lives with secrets, passions and yearnings. Clary, an aspiring writer, learns that her beloved father is now missing somewhere on the shores of France. And sensitive, imaginative Polly feels stuck - stuck without a vocation, stuck without information about her mother's illness, stuck without anything except her nightmares about the war. With cover artwork exclusively designed by artist Luke Edward Hall, this is the second volume of the extraordinary Cazalet Chronicles and a perfect addition to your collection. Marking Time is followed by Confusion, the third book in the series. 'Charming, poignant and quite irresistible . . . to be cherished and shared' - Times

With an introduction by Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall. Originally published in 1956, The Long View is Elizabeth Jane Howard's uncannily authentic portrait of one marriage and one woman. Observant and heartbreaking, written with exhilarating wit, it is a gut-wrenching account of the birth and death of a relationship - as extraordinary as it is timeless. One of his secret pleasures was the loading of social dice against himself. He did not seem for one moment to consider the efforts made by kind or sensitive people to even things up: or if such notions ever occurred to him, he would have observed them with detached amusement, and reloaded more dice. In 1950s London, Antonia Fleming faces the prospect of a life lived alone. Her children are now adults; her husband Conrad, a domineering and emotionally complex man, is a stranger. As Antonia looks towards her future, the novel steadily moves backwards in time, tracing Antonia's relationship with Conrad to its beginning in the 1920s, through years of mistake and motherhood, dreams and war.

From the lauded, bestselling author of the Cazalet Chronicles, Something in Disguise paints a candid picture of a family in crisis, from the ever witty Elizabeth Jane Howard. May's second marriage to Colonel Herbert Brown-Lacy is turning out to be a terrible mistake. Her son, Oliver, leaves home only to drift from one affair to another; his sister Elizabeth follows him, yearning for some kind of secure relationship. While even Alice, Herbert's meek daughter, is driven into marriage to escape her father's sinister behaviour . . . At once a candid depiction of a post-war family on the cusp of change and a touching love story, Something in Disguise embodies the startling truth, wit and daring that Elizabeth Jane Howard is renowned for.

The composer Arthur Somervell was also an Inspector of Schools with special responsibility for the teaching of music. His collected writings set forth his philosophy of music education and cast light on musical life between the 1890s and his death in 1937. Sir Arthur Somervell (1863-1937), composer and educationist, influenced the musical and educational life of England over four decades. Remembered today principally as an accomplished composer of songs and choral works, he also worked for twenty-eight years as one of His Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (HMI), with special responsibility for the teaching of music. Towards the end of his life Somervell gathered together a number of his articles, in whichhe expounds a passionate philosophy of music education, makes candid remarks about musical life and musical education in England, and provides insights into the sometimes bitter debate with Cecil Sharp about folk song. These collected writings have now been prepared for publication by Gordon Cox, together with some unpublished speeches and letters, enabling musicologists and music educators to re-evaluate the significance of Somervell's contribution to the musical and educational life of his time. GORDON COX is senior lecturer in education at the University of Reading.

Elizabeth Jane Howard, acclaimed author of the Cazalet Chronicles, once said that she would certainly have been a gardener had she not become a writer first. In Green Shades: An Anthology of Plants, Gardens and Gardeners, she brings together a diverse and fascinating selection of garden writing that spans the centuries, the seasons and the species.

Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, pocket-sized classics with ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover.

The contents are delightfully eclectic and wide-ranging, practical as well as lyrical – she pays homage to the great English landscape artists of the eighteenth century and to the great women gardeners such as Vita Sackville-West. There’s advice from Pliny on how walnuts can be used to dye hair and Joseph Addison encourages blackbirds to gorge on his cherry trees. Linking the numerous extracts is Elizabeth Jane Howard’s perceptive and highly personal commentary, which skilfully leads the reader from one subject to the next.

From the bestselling author of The Cazalet Chronicles, The Sea Change is a witty yet heart-rending story of a marriage in crisis. Emmanuel is a famous playwright. Lillian is his sickly and embittered wife. They have never fully buried the memory of their dead daughter, Sarah. Rich but discontented, they flit from capital to capital in the company of their hero-worshipping young manager. Then Alberta, straight from an English vicarage and the pages of Jane Austen, is appointed as Emmanuel's secretary. This prim and utterly delightful figure helps the family in ways they didn't know they needed. One by one the leopards change their spots . . .

From the lauded, bestselling author of the Cazalet Chronicles, in Odd Girl Out, Elizabeth Jane Howard reveals with devastating accuracy a marriage put in a most destructive situation. Anna and Edmund Cornhill have a happy marriage and a lovely home. They are content, complete, absorbed in their private idyll. Arabella, who comes to stay one lazy summer, is rich, rootless and amoral - and, as they find out, beautiful and loving. With her elegant prose the author traces the web of love and desire that entangles these three; but it is Arabella who finally loses out.

From the bestselling author of the Cazalet Chronicles comes Elizabeth Jane Howard's Love All. The late 1960s. For Persephone Plover, the daughter of distant and neglectful parents, the innocent, isolated days of childhood are long past. Now she must deal with the emotions of an adult world . . . Meanwhile in Melton, in the West Country, Jack Curtis - a self-made millionaire - has employed Persephone's aunt, a garden designer in her sixties, to deal with the terraces and glasshouses of the once beautiful local manor house he has acquired at vast expense. He also has plans to start an arts festival, as a means to avoid the loneliness of the recently divorced. Also in Melton are the Musgrove siblings, Thomas and Mary, whose parents originally owned and lived in Melton House. They are still trying to cope with emotional consequences of the tragic death of Thomas's wife, Celia . . . as is Francis, Celia's brother, who has come to live with them and thereby, perhaps, to find his way through life.

From the bestselling author of the Cazalet Chronicles comes Elizabeth Jane Howard's Falling. Harry Kent is a sensitive man in late middle age, a reader and a thinker, without means perhaps but not without charm. Daisy has recovered from her unhappy past by learning to be self-sufficient, and viewing trust as a weakness. But there is still a part of her that yearns to be cared for once more. It is this part that Henry sees, and with dedicated and calculated patience he works at her defences. So despite all attempts to resist his attentions, Daisy finds herself falling under Henry's spell . . .

The Cazalet Chronicles continues with the third in the series, Confusion, set in the height of the Second World War and where chaos has become a way of life for the Cazalet family. It's 1942 and the dark days of war seem never-ending. Scattered across the still-peaceful Sussex countryside and air-raid-threatened London, the divided Cazalets begin to find the battle for survival echoing the confusion in their own lives. Headstrong, independent Louise surprises the whole family when she abandons her dreams of being an actress and instead makes a society marriage. Polly and Clary, now in their late teens, finally fulfil their ambition of living together in London. But the reality of the city is not quite what they imagined, and Polly is struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother and manage her grieving father. Clary, meanwhile, is painfully aware that what she lacks in beauty she makes up for in intelligence, and is the only member of the family who believes that her father might not be dead. With cover artwork exclusively designed by artist Luke Edward Hall, this is the heartbreaking and heartwarming third instalment of Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling series. It is followed by the fourth book, Casting Off. 'Charming, poignant and quite irresistible . . . to be cherished and shared' - The Times

In 1937, the coming war is only a distant cloud on Britain's horizon. As the Cazalet households prepare for their summer pilgrimage to the family estate in Sussex, readers meet Edward, in love with but by no means faithful to his wife Villy; Hugh, wounded in the Great War; Rupert, who worships his lovely child-bride Zoe; and Rachel, the spinster sister.

The third entry in Howard's magnificent trio of novels takes the Cazalets from the dark, middle period of World War II to VE Day, May 8, 1945. The characters--including beautiful Zoe, philandering Edward, and passionate, troubled Louise--find the turmoil of those long, somber days echoed in the inner chaos of their own lives.

All the longing, excitement and poignant comedy of adolescence are captured in Elizabeth Jane Howard's first novel The Beautiful Visit, about a young girl growing up in the years around the First World War. Life had been distinctly lacking in possibilities - until The Visit. But, ever afterwards, just remembering the smell of the Lancings' house would enrapture her, taking her back to that very first day when Lucy and Gerald had picked her up from the station . . . Beginning and ending with a visit to the same family, it is a novel full of love, loss, and the ever-lasting effect of war.

From the lauded, bestselling author of The Cazalet Chronicles, After Julius is Elizabeth Jane Howard's funny yet touching story of a family brought together yet falling apart. It is twenty years since Julius died, but his last heroic action still affects the lives of the people he left behind. Emma, his youngest daughter, twenty-seven years old and afraid of men. Cressida, her sister, a war widow, blindly searching for love in her affairs with married men. Esme, Julius's widow, still attractive at fifty-eight, but aimlessly lost in the routine of her perfect home. Felix, Esme's old lover, who left her when Julius died and who is still plagued by guilt for his action. And Dan, an outsider. Throughout a disastrous - and revelatory - weekend in Sussex, the influence of the dead Julius slowly emerges . . .

'Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning-point in one's own experience' - Elizabeth Bowen, author of The Heat of the Day Intelligent and haunting, with echoes of Brief Encounter, this is a love story by one of the best British writers of the 20th century. During summer games of hide and seek Harriet falls in love with Vesey and his elusive, teasing ways. When he goes to Oxford she cherishes his photograph and waits for a letter that never comes. Years pass and Harriet stifles her dreams; with a husband and daughter, she excels at respectability. But then Vesey reappears and her marriage seems to melt away. Harriet is older, it is much too late, but she is still in love with him.