This is the third in the four book series about the English family Cazalet. The family consists of William and his wife Kitty, their four children, their spouses and grandchildren, as well as the servants and close friends and relations. He is always referred to as "The Brig" and she as "Duchy," short for the Brigadier and the Duchess although he has never been in military service, nor is his wife truly a duchess. Their children consist of three boys, all married, two of whom went to war (officers, of course) in the First World War. The daughter is unmarried and in love with another woman, but there is no sexual relationship.

The first book, The Light Years, begins in 1937. This one progresses from March 1942 through the winter of 1944/45. The series is not really about military action, although that is always in the background and some events are alluded to in their conversations, but rather it concerns the actions and reactions of individuals in the family--their private thoughts and lives; especially those who started the series as children. Many of the chapters are from one or another of their viewpoints. Their sexual relationships are referred to obliquely, but happily without explicit details. The daughter mentioned in the last paragraph, for instance, is in love with a lesbian, Sid, but there is no physical consummation of their passion for each other due to the daughter (Rachel's) disgust at physical intimacy of any kind, with male or female. Sid longs for such a relationship, however, and finds it elsewhere--and then is confronted with guilt and conflict as the fruits of her deceit.

One of the girls tells her lover, an American officer, that her parent's generation would be appalled at their affair, stating that their generation in England does not indulge in affairs. Of course, unknown to her, they do but are discrete about them.

This is a most interesting series. The author is obviously familiar with the environment and the people, and the resulting insight into the British character is enlightening. For those of us who lived through those years it is not only entertaining but also nostalgic.

Joseph H. Pierre
author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity

This is the second book of a four-book series about the relatively wealthy family Cazalet, a large British family in World War II England. The family consists of William and his wife Kitty, their four children, their spouses and grandchildren, as well as the servants and close friends and relations. He is always referred to as "The Brig" and she as "Duchy," short for the Brigadier and the Duchess although he has never been in military service, nor is his wife truly a duchess. Their children consist of three boys, all married, two of whom went to war (officers, of course) in the First World War. The daughter is unmarried and in love with another woman, but there is no lesbian sexual relationship.

The interplay of relationships, the sometimes-Victorian moirés and values, the amenities they enjoy compared to the lower, servant class, their views of world politics, war, education and marital and extra-marital sex are not only entertaining, but also instructive--for the author is obviously personally familiar with the environment and people she portrays. Howard was born in London and lives in Suffolk.

The first book, The Light Years, begins in 1937, in pre-war England. The Brig is head of a successful lumber company dealing in exotic hardwoods, and has brought his two WW1 veteran sons, Hugh (who lost an arm in the conflict) and handsome Edward (who is a sex-oriented rake who cheats on his wife and fondles his daughter) into the firm. His other son, Rupert is a schoolteacher and painter who lost a wife in childbirth and replaced her with a 23-year-old selfish airhead beauty whom his children detest. Eventually, Rupert also joins the firm. Each of the sons have children. Each summer they all go to the country and live together with the boys' parents, together with their servants and friends, including Rachel, the maiden sister who lives with their parents the year-'round, and her female "friend," half Jewish Sid, who would like their relationship to be more physical--but Rachel is repelled by any form of physical intimacy.

In this, the second book, the dreaded war finally strikes Britain and the family, and this is the story of their individual reactions to the changed situation. The book does not dwell on the military aspects, but rather on the home front, and the reactions of those who are left behind as the men go to their wartime duties. Again, the emphasis is primarily on the children's stories, and their attempts to grow up in a world turned topsy-turvy.

As with the first, the book is extremely well-written. The author has several other books, plays and movie scripts to her credit and her skill is not only obvious but well-earned. I am looking forward to reading the other two books in this series. At this writing, I have ordered the third, The Confusion, but am told that the last book in the series, Casting Off, is out-of-print, so I have ordered it from Amazon's used book service. We'll see how long it takes.

Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity

This second volume, while encompassing the entire family and its related branches, focuses primarily on Louise, Polly, and Clary---three young girls growing into womanhood in a time when everything is frozen, in a time that Polly describes as "the present seemed gray; the future black."

Although they may only be "marking time" and waiting for peacetime to let their lives resume, the normal course of daily events makes this a poignant novel to curl up with. One brother is missing in action and presumed dead, one brother faces the possibility of losing his wife to a terminal illness, one brother persists in his extra-marital dalliances and sexual abuse of his own daughter, and the sister continues her clandestine love affair. Babies are born, alliances are formed, and love looms on the horizon. Into this family comes a virtual stranger, Archie Lestrange, a longago friend of Rupert and Isobel's. His kindness, level-headedness, and good nature bring hope to the Cazalets and dreams of love to one of them.

At the close of the book, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and everyone settles in for a long and bitter war. Prepare yourself for a cliffhanger on the final page that will have you scurrying to order Volume 3 "Confusion."

For those in the United States who are having a hard time finding this book (as I did) I suggest you try W. H. Smith On-line. I ordered it from them and it took about a month to arrive from England (cost was about 10 pounds).

The Light Years also made me realize for the first time how constrained women's lives were, even as late as 1937.

This is a book that will sneak up on you. If it were a movie, it would be disparaged as a "chick flick." However, you won't realize how much you like it until you've finished the last page and feel cheated that it's ended. I immediately ordered the next book, Marking Time.

I can just imagine those fine actors, Alan Bates and Dianna Quick giving these characters voice - Bates, especially, is perfect casting.

Henry is in his 60s, without financial means, and caretaking a small houseboat on one of England's canals. He sees himself as handsome, charming and sexually gifted - a real ladies man. He thinks he knows what women want and does his best to give it to them, but on the wrong side of 60 and with little money, his opportunities are limited. Without a partner, and burnt by experiences from lonely hearts columns, he refuses to give up, and sets his requirements down on paper. However, on a walk to the village for provisions, he notices a local cottage has been bought by a reasonably attractive woman of mature years with, most importantly, obvious signs of money. Successfully offering his services as a gardener, then caretaker of the cottage when Daisy's work takes her to America for some months, he immediately begins planning a strategy to make Daisy's money his. He rearranges his life story in a way that he thinks will make Daisy sympathetic to him, and slowly, relentlessly inveigles her into his web of deceit and lies.

Written in alternate chapters from both Henry's and Daisy's viewpoint, we read of him setting his bait, then her unknowingly taking it, then his derision of her neediness. We find out about Henry's past, or rather, the past he prefers to remember. We find out about Daisy, her two failed marriages, her estrangement from her daughter and her unexpected success as a playwright.

Despite being badly let down by two husbands, Daisy allows herself to be drawn in by what she sees as his selflessness, caring, admiration, and sexual prowess, not realising that it's all a calculated act. But fortunately for her, she's not without friends, and even though Henry eventually has her in his thrall, they are not so easily deceived.

I almost put this book down several times. I had a sour taste in my mouth most of the time I was reading - I felt something nasty was going to happen and I wasn't sure I wanted to know about it. It didn't quite happen that way, due to the intervention of people who really loved Daisy, but this could so easily be the story of many people looking for love. Beware of con-men with good stories, listen to your friends, and trust your initial instincts - all advice Daisy could have used.

The author adopts an unusual construction for her narrative. It might be called chronology in reverse. Instead of tracing the development of a relationship between husband and wife over a period of twenty-four years, Miss Howard begins in the present and reverts, stage by stage, to the time of the first meeting.

No novelist known to me is as skilled as Miss Howard at dissecting and displaying the myriad flickerings and quiverings of people's thought and emotions in dialogue with themselves and in interaction with each other. Admiration of this skill is more likely to command your attention in this book than are the appeals of suspense, plot development and setting.