A review by sarahmatthews
All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard

reflective medium-paced

All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Read in Braille

Pub. 2013,  573pp

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Oh how sad I am to have reached the end of the Cazalet Chronicles! I’ve  spread this set of 5 novels out over the past year and it’s been so enjoyable. The cast of characters are so engaging and I always looked forward to reading it at bedtime, often reading far too late into the night.

This book picks up the story of the family in 1956, with their timber business in trouble and several of the characters dealing with the effects of aging. The book did have a reflective, often sombre tone and as it was written when the author herself was in her late 80s it’s understandable that this is the focus. We see Miss Milliment struggling with her memory and Villy doing her best to support her, and the older brothers also have health issues. Edward’s story was a kind of comeuppance which is told in such a way that you find yourself feeling sorry for him at times.  

Elizabeth Jane Howard writes children brilliantly and plays to her strengths here, you can see that she loves writing from their perspective and has given several characters new offspring.  I enjoyed Georgie and his zoo of small creatures, and the lovely, touching moment when Harriet collected snowdrops for Rachel. There were a few times when I thought the children were getting a little too much of the narrative and I wanted to get back to others.

Some of the storylines went as I kind of expected, such as Teddy who’s just like his father, and others took unexpected turns. Neville’s story started well with his career as a photographer giving him the opportunity to use his charm but went down a route that seemed to be designed to shock but wasn’t particularly successful and just sort of fizzled out.

I would have liked a bit more of Louise and her mate Stella and wanted to know more about her relationships from the previous books.

I read this book at Christmas which turned out to be very fitting as the last part is set at the family home in the Sussex countryside where they all come together for a traditional festive season, complete with snow! Possibly not my favourite of the series but it was such a treat to be back in their world again for a while. 

This really is  a delightful series which covers a large part of the 20th century and reflects changing attitudes and the social upheaval of post war Britain through wonderful characters, and I’m sure to return to it in future.