All Change

By Elizabeth Jane Howard

As the old world begins to fade from view and a new dawn emerges, All Change marks the fifth and final volume in Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling Cazalet Chronicles.

'Compelling, moving, unputdownable . . . Maybe my favourite books ever' - Marian Keyes, bestselling author of My Favourite Mistake

It is the 1950s and as the Duchy, the Cazalets’ beloved matriarch, dies, she takes with her the last remnants of a disappearing world – houses with servants and cherished 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, feel ill-equipped for this changing world, while Villy, long abandoned by her husband, must at last learn to live independently. But it is Rachel, who has always lived for others, who will face her greatest challenges yet. And nothing will ever be the same again.

'She helps us to do the necessary thing – open our eyes and our hearts' – Hilary Mantel, bestselling author of The Mirror and the Light

All Change is the heartbreaking and heartwarming final instalment of Elizabeth Jane Howard's bestselling series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Nov 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781447247173

Elizabeth Jane Howard

Elizabeth Jane Howard was the author of fifteen highly acclaimed novels. 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. In 2002 Macmillan published Elizabeth Jane Howard's autobiography, Slipstream. In that same year she was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List. She died, aged 90, at home in Suffolk on 2 January 2014.

Reviews for All Change

[paradiseporch · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As the world changed, so did the Cazalet family. This book must be Howard's masterpiece, published 18 years after what was supposed to be the final volume in the series, and published the year before Howard died. I'm so sad that I've finished my time with the Cazalets. I shall have to buy all 5 books to reread.

[japaul22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the fifth and final book in Howard's Cazalet family epic taking place from roughly the 1930s-50s in England. I was a little nervous because this last book was written about 10 years after the first four. But luckily, it felt just the same in style and gave a satisfying conclusion to the series. I have absolutely loved reading these books. They are great comfort reads - easy to read, engaging characters, and lots of drama. This is not highly literary writing, a lot of it feels soap opera-ish, but in the best possible way. Over the last couple years, I've turned to these when I need something totally absorbing and I'm sad to finish them. She wrapped things up pretty well, but in a multi-generational story like this there can always be new stories told and I'm sort of sad not to know what happens to everyone. As you can see, I've come to think of these people as real!

[mahallett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

sad to be at the end. too many characters I think.

[grandeghi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Con il quinto volume si chiude la lunghissima saga dei Cazalet di Elisabeth Jane Howard; la storia di questa famiglia mi ha accompagnato per circa due anni, lasciandomi in diverse fasi della lettura scettico, per non dire insoddisfatto. Sono dovuto arrivare al termine della storia, all’epilogo, triste come tutte le storie delle famiglie, per apprezzare il lavoro della Howard, forse per calarmi in una dimensione più intima rispetto a questa famiglia. I tre Fratelli vivono con difficoltà la crisi economica della Cazalet, non riescono a decidere di far gestire l’azienda ad un manager esterno, nonostante nessuno di loro abbia le capacità per affrontare un momento di difficoltà strutturale. Rachel vive il grandissimo dolore della per la perdita di Syd, la sua compagna di una vita e si trova in età avanzata da sola. La famiglia è sempre più divisa, il matrimonio di Edward con Diane, una donna egoista e inconsistente, crea tensioni. Ma per assurdo sarà proprio la bancarotta della società, la perdita della qualifica di ricca famiglia borghese a restituire a tutti I membri della famiglia l’occasione per incontrarsi un’ultima volta nella casa paterna, per l’ultimo Natale. Anche home place sarà solo un bene da devolvere ai creditori. Rimane il romanzo di una famiglia inglese destinato ad entrare nella storia della letteratura. E al quinto volume mi sono accorto giustamente con merito.

[starbox_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The final Cazalet chronicleBy sally tarbox on 18 March 2018Format: Kindle EditionThe fifth and final of the Cazalet chronicles, all of which I have read and enjoyed over past few weeks. You totally get into the personalities, with their problems and flaws, and want to find out what happens next.This volume takes up the story some ten years on, from 1956-58. The children we left are now adults, the newly-weds now have families of their own, while the older characters are entering old age and its difficulties.. Meanwhile the business which once gave them such a privileged lifestyle is failing...I didn't think this was QUITE as well-written as previous volumes, a bit 'chick-litty' at times. Nonetheless, a must-read if you've got this far, and very enjoyable.

[annejacinta · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love these chronicles so it was fantastic to be able to read on in the Cazalet saga, set 20 years on from the start in 1937. New characters include the offspring of the original children - Howard creates their individual voices and personalities with her usual cleverness. Has she ever produced an unlikeable character? They may vary between headstrong or weak, over emotional or repressed, too honest or deceitful, but it is hard to pick one for whom we have no sympathy at some stage in the series. We see the impact of earlier behaviours playing out, negatively in some cases, in others there is a rewarding resolution. But there are losses, sorrows, grief and suffering as the realities of life circumstances alter after the war. The passage of time is shown more clearly in changes in relationships. Maybe there is less of the descriptive detail of everyday life in this final volume, more emphasis on emotion rather than the characters' actions and routines. There is something dogged about the rapid turnover of chapters, each headed with the names of those involved, as if Howard was determined to follow up everyone in what she may have considered her last work in the series. It' is a very long book, with lots happening to keep the reader very engaged with this very well known group of characters, set in such a significant period of the twentieth century for England.