The Light Years

The first book in the landmark, beloved Cazalet Chronicles, previously adapted for BBC radio and television. With the onset of the Second World War, The Light Years reveals a privileged family facing uncertain times.

What magic transforms a book into a compelling, moving, unputdownable read? I don’t know, but whatever it is, [The Cazalet Chronicles] have it. The characters! I cared about them so much. They behave in interesting, venal, believable ways. They’re recognisably human: frustrating, flawed, lovable. Maybe my favourite books ever

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

The Light Years is an immense piece of work and should be read by everyone. She writes about family relationships in the most moving and beautiful way

Like [Elena] Ferrante, Howard’s fictional sphere is domestic and yet reveals deeper truths about human nature

Howard is a sharp observer of human drama and psychology, and writes about pain, loss and longing superbly well

I don’t know how I’d managed to miss [The Cazalet Chronicles] until now, but they’re absolute heaven

[N]o detail is too small to be included, so charged with significance is the material envelope of that lost world

Charming, poignant and quite irresistible . . . to be cherished and shared

The Cazalets have earned an honoured place among the great saga families . . . rendered thrillingly three-dimensional by a master craftsman

Packed with psychological insights that just keep coming, and gorgeous and quirky writing

Elizabeth Jane Howard was the author of fifteen highly acclaimed novels, including the five volumes of The Cazalet Chronicles, as well as After Julius , Falling , Getting It Right , Love All , and Odd Girl Out. 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. She had one child, Nicola, and married three times – lastly to fellow author Sir Kingsley Amis. 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.