This is the first of five novels set just before and during WWII in Great Britain, a Downton Abbey or Upstairs/Downstairs kind of book, as we follow the lives of the Cazalet's, the grandparents, their three sons, their families, as well as the lives of those who help or serve on their estate. The novel begins in 1937, just as Hitler is beginning to acquire various countries in Europe and Great Britain is reluctantly being tugged into another war not of their making. It covers the summers of 1937 and 1938, as the families descend on the grandparents estate in Sussex. We follow the lives and thoughts of the three brothers, Hugh, wounded and armless , a result of WWI, and his wife; Edward, the womanizer and Villy his innocent, naive and once again pregnant wife; the youngest son, Rupert, a frustrated artist, who has remarried after the death of his first wife; Rachel, the daughter whose role is to take care of her parents, though she has fallen in love with Sid, a woman, also single but also Jewish, raising the flag of intolerance found not only in Germany but also in Great Britain.
We also follow, quite realistically, the lives of their children, the eldest fifteen, the youngest about five, and their trials and tribulations as they reacquaint themselves with their cousins each summer, relationships and interests changing, as they grow older. And of course, to a lesser degree we are let into the lives of those who serve, the cooks, gardeners, maids, and villagers, all whom make up the world of the Cazalets. The major event is the impending war with Germany, inexorably moving forward, despite the hopes of the family, which suffered so from WW I. This book ends with Prime Minister Chamberlains's seemingly successful pact with Hitler over Czechoslovakia, staying the declaration of war. Unfortunately, England is drawn into the war in 1939, having pledged itself to Poland if Germany invades. I assume this will be the setting for the next novel, MARKING TIME.
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