This final volume of the Cazalets was written 18 years after the preceding volume, nearing the end of EJH's life. It is a what happened later rather than a summing up I would say. Written generally in smaller bites, a little repetitive in places. She sustains the tone, but although big things happen, I'm not 100% sure the volume was necessary.

Overall the series has been very satisfying. The breadth of perspectives (the initial outline coming from the the teenage girls looking up and down, and how they mature across the series), the social/domestic history, the things that were still in my memory from childhood (be it from the working class) that no longer exist now all interesting.

These were an upper middle-class/lower upper-class family heading towards a time when the expectations of their lives were heading towards dramatic change. Howard shows this progression while maintaining sympathy for her characters. ( )

A day late and a dollar short. ( )

This is my second time listening to the series. I can’t wait for enough time to pass so I can enjoy it all over again.

This is the story of an English middle class family that covers the period from 1939 to the late 50s. The story and cast are brilliantly sustained and developed in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s telling, which is unfailingly insightful, full of pathos and humor. I live inside the world of the Cazalets as I am reading.

One reads different books for different things, making it impossible (at least for me) to say of any book: this is my favorite of all. But for a five volume family saga depicting the era between the wars in England, the Cazalet Chronicles are just perfect. ( )

Five stars is really for the series as a whole. Every book had me gripped; many a bus stop nearly missed, real tears shed and characters who I really did care about ( and a few who made me very cross). A truly satisfying saga that follows a family from the uncertainties pre-second world war to the very end of the 1950s. Births, marriages, divorces, deaths, affairs and the pains of growing up are beautifully portrayed through a wonderful array of very different personalities, against a background of seismic social change. Although I loved this final book in the series it did show that it was written some time later than the initial four. It was almost as though Elizabeth Jane Howard herself needed to reacquaint herself with her cast. A minor criticism of a magnificent, rewarding, very enjoyable read. ( )

As the world changed, so did the Cazalet family. This book must be Howard's masterpiece, published 18 years after what was supposed to be the final volume in the series, and published the year before Howard died.

I'm so sad that I've finished my time with the Cazalets. I shall have to buy all 5 books to reread. ( )