This was a really interesting and marvelously written book which I really enjoyed. The time setting was unclear but having been published in 1972, I assumed it was from around that era. It did not state but references to monetary values clarified this somewhat. It is certainly not one of her bes...
This is the third in the chronicle and I'm going to continue with the 3 stars ratings. I'm enjoying it and it gets a little easier as it goes because the people are more familiar but something about the way she sets up paragraphs leaves me cold. I am not always positive who we are reading about u...
Born in London in 1923, Elizabeth Jane Howard was privately educated at home, moving on to short-lived careers as an actress and model, before writing her first acclaimed novel, The Beautiful Visit, in 1950. She has written twelve highly regarded novels, most recently Falling . Her Cazalet Chroni...
Elizabeth Jane Howard is probably best known for her panoramic CAZALET series, which chronicles the rise and fall of an upper middle class British family before, during, and after WWII. (It was made into a Masterpiece Theater Presentation.)But in this collection of short stories she shows off her...
"Falling" is not only a novel that delves into the anatomy of a seduction. It is also masterful in that it gives the reader access into both the inner and outer lives of the two people involved: Henry Kent and Daisy Langrish. Elizabeth Jane Howard fleshes them out with the skill that Vermeer, ...
God, Howard is SUCH a good writer. Massively under-rated and misunderstood by many and deserves to be more frequently read. This is her first novel and is extraorindarily good. She has a talent for getting right under the skin of each of her characters so that you really understand their thought...
The first book in a saga that explores the impact of the changes that overtook Britain in the late twentieth century, The Light Years focuses on an extended upper-middle class family just before the outbreak of World War Two. Elizabeth Jane Howard has an unusual narrative technique in that the po...
Getting it right was not Gavin Lamb's forte, at least where human relationships were concerned. In the hairdressing salon, he was an expert with the tools of his trade. But back at home with his mother, it was quite a different matter. He didn't know how to deal with women since he was a prototyp...
I enjoyed this book a great deal. All of Howard's books (that I've read) are very much of their time - she has a gift for portraying the slightly grubby feel of post-war England - bed sits and inconveniences - in contrast to the pre-war comfort of more established/monied homes. In this she someti...
There were many authors in this book that truly deserve a 2nd look; I loved that she read ALL of Anita Brookner as well as her honesty about Jane Austen.
On the eve of an unusual voyage, a young woman reviews her life. Her story begins with a 'beautiful visit' to friends in the country which serves as an awakening experience. What follows is an account of her struggle to retain the mood of her visit.
How untrue that is, he thought, as he drove down the familiar lane, away from the cottage, through the wooded bit and then past the drive leading up to the station. Three miles away . . . He could still turn back, but he knew that he would not. He would continue the boring, well-known, dull road ...
How on earth did you guess?’‘You’re wearing your London clothes,’ Lydia answered, and then after careful scrutiny added, ‘I honestly think you look nicer when you aren’t in them. I do hope you don’t mind my mentioning the fact.’‘Not at all. You’re probably right. It’s ages since I had any new one...
Wilson’s new novel is set in 1970 at the London Zoo. The narrator of the story is Simon Carter, ex-Treasury, and now the Zoo’s Secretary; married to a rich and charming young American and with two children. He is a naturalist with a great love for badgers (who as we know, take a deal of watching ...
He was born in a house called No. 3, The Grove, but his apartment in the house was No. 16, Skirting Board West. A great many other mouseholders lived there as well, but luckily several families of people also resided there, which meant that there was generally enough food to go round. ...
She had pulled down the straps of her bikini in order to have an even tan on her golden-brown back. The villa, when they eventually reached it, was large and full of faded velvet-upholstered furniture. Its drawbacks – not mentioned by the agents – included only one bathroom for the seven bedrooms...
He’ll eat up all our food and keep on wanting to go to the cinema. And he’ll probably be no good at all at painting.’ ‘We can give him the easy bits to do.’ ‘He actually asked me if we were going to pay him for working. My own brother!’ ‘Oh, Clary! He was only joking. Are the sausages done?’ ‘The...
How very amusing!’ ‘Amusing? Potato pie? I must say, Dolly, you have the strangest sense of humour. Try as I will, I can see nothing to laugh at in a potato.’ ‘But then, dear, you have never been known for your sense of humour.’ Fifteen all, Villy thought, as she sat at the morning-room desk payi...
I dreamed I was in St Mary Abbot’s church after my brother’s christening. There was a tea party in the church with people standing about holding cups of tea. I was given a large plate – I needed both hands to carry it – and told to hand it round to everyone. The plate was covered by small rectang...