Marking Time

Description

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

Elizabeth Jane Howard was the author of fifteen highly acclaimed novels. The Cazalet Chronicles - The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change - have become established as modern classics and have been adapted for a major BBC television series and for BBC Radio 4. In 2000 she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, and in 2002 Macmillan published her autobiography, Slipstream. She died, aged ninety, at home in Suffolk on 2 January 2014.

If I were sent to a desert island with one book this would be my choice -- HRH The Duchess of Cornwall Charming, poignant and quite irresistible . . . to be cherished and shared' * The Times * 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 The Cazalets have earned an honoured place among the great saga families . . . rendered thrillingly three-dimensional by a master craftsman * Sunday Telegraph * Superb . . . hypnotic . . . very funny * Spectator * Evocative and gracefully written * Cosmopolitan * A family saga of the best kind . . . a must * Tatler * A dazzling historical reconstruction -- Penelope Fitzgerald This chronicle will be read, like Trollope, as a classic about life in England in our century -- Sybille Bedford Gloriously addictive . . . Family loyalty, betrayals, triumphs, tragedy, births and deaths are all blissfully here, and you become emotionally absorbed in the fate of each character * Daily Mail *