In the tradition of Evelyn Waugh and E. M. Forster, the first book in this critically acclaimed multigenerational saga about an upper-middle-class family in Britain before, during, and after World War II recreates a vanished world. As war clouds gather on the distant horizon, Hugh, Edward, and Rupert Cazalet, along with their wives, children, and loyal servants, prepare to leave London for their annual pilgrimage to the family's Sussex estate. There,...

The continuing story of the Cazalets, a well-to-do English family. The present volume, the third in the series, centers on cousins Polly and Clary as they leave their country home to begin adult life in World War II London.

It is the 1950s and as the Cazalets' beloved matriarch, the Duchy, passes away, she takes with her the last remnants of a world, of great houses and servants, of 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...