Continuing The Cazalet Chronicles With Louisa Young

Louisa Young is coming to Waterstones Edinburgh West End on Wednesday 18 November, from 7pm to 8pm, to talk about the latest instalment in the Cazalet Chronicles. Young is a bestselling author and the niece of Elizabeth Jane Howard, the writer who started the family saga; she's the one carrying it forward.

The evening centres on The Golden Hours, the sixth novel in the series. It finds the Cazalets at Christmas 1962: the beloved Home Place has been sold, and the clan gathers instead at Fakenham Hall. There, the old guard — Hugh, Edward, Rupert and Rachel — watch the England they knew fade away, while cousins Polly, Louise and Clary, all on the brink of turning forty, struggle to balance the demands of midlife with their own desires. Alongside them, a new generation is growing up on the cusp of real change.

If you're just getting into the family, it's a long road to catch up on. The Golden Hours follows The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change. Stacey Halls called the series a "sweeping, arresting continuation of a dearly beloved series," and Linda Grant has described Young as "the great chronicler of romantic love and the pain of its loss."

It's a single hour on a Wednesday night, so it's an easy one to fit in. Tickets are £5 for general admission, or £23 if you want the book included. Waterstones is at 128 Princes Street, EH2 4AD.