Marking Time

As the shadows of World War II loom over England, a new generation takes up the family’s story in the second novel in this beloved and bestselling Cazalet Chronicles

Sussex, 1939. War looms once more—an unthinkable return for a nation still scarred by the last. The Cazalets gather again at Home Place, but not for summer leisure; they come together for safety, the sunlit rituals of childhood giving way to fear and uncertainty.

As the daughters of Edward, Hugh, and Rupert come of age, their private ambitions and heartbreaks unfold under mounting pressure. Louise, who dreams of the stage, begins to see her parents not as pillars but as fallible, fragile people. Sensitive Polly is paralyzed by dread, her nightmares colored by the reality of war. And Clary, an aspiring writer, must confront the unthinkable: her beloved father is missing in France.

Poignant and unsparing, Marking Time reveals how love, loyalty, and ambition are tested when innocence gives way to experience—and a family must decide who they will become as the world changes forever.