I don’t know which is the most trouble, having the hall and stairs painted or having new bookcases in the study. Hanging pictures and putting back books take ages but in both cases it’s an opportunity to re-arrange. More than a year ago, putting books back in the study, I came across a paperback that I hadn’t read;
Odd Girl Out by Elizabeth Jane Howard. I had never read anything by her and had only heard of her because she had been married to Kingsley Amis. I cannot be the only person with such a superficial knowledge as she called her autobiography Slipstream.
This paperback, that I thoroughly enjoyed, led me to The Cazalet Chronicle, her five volume saga of life in the upper middle class Cazalet family from before the Second World War until – I don’t know yet. (It seems perfect for reading on a Kindle on holiday. Novels work best on this. It is frustrating to read books where I want to go back a few pages or to read footnotes or check the index.)
These books were serialised on TV and Radio 4 but I missed both. Now I am enjoying coming to them fresh. There is a large cast of characters but they are introduced gradually and each is put under her microscope. Children and adults, family and servants, come alive. Their emotions, their hopes, fears and regrets are all revealed in ways that are often moving and funny and always show insight. Knowing that later volumes will cover the war and post-war years I am already intensely curious to know what will become of all these Cazalets.
If you want to know what happened to all those pictures commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, here is the answer. At the end of the Second World War, one third of the collection was given to the Imperial War Museum. Incidentally this museum now is responsible for commissioning war artists. The rest was given to public collections and many are at Tate Britain. Some are now on display in a current Tate show, Fighting History. Make time for the Barbara Hepworth exhibition and a spot of lunch. in the Rex Whistler Restaurant, if you can afford £27 for two courses. A special attraction of the restaurant is the mural by Rex Whistler, The Expedition In Pursuit of Rare Meats, that has been restored recently.
Dear Christopher
We are distant cousins and I was introduced to your blog by Katherine Stewart. Katherine’s grandmother and mine were sisters, Ada and Aline Bellew. I was interested to read your comments on the Cazalets as I have just finished reading the chronicle and enjoyed them immensly for many of the same reasons. Although I was born in 1962 in the late sixties there was still, in many houses, a faint echo of that life which reading these bought back to me.
Kind regards
Dominic Weston Smith
Dear Dominic,
I remember meeting your parents when they came to Barmeath and I’m pleased to hear from you. Thank you for taking an interest in the blog. Some family stuff will appear from time to time.
Best wishes, Christopher
Christopher – I started the Cazalet Chronicle last month, and have read the first two volumes which I really enjoyed. I’ve now taken a break to read the book of the moment ‘ Go Set a Watchman’ after which I intend rejoining the Cazalets!
M
Dear M,
I think it’s a bit spoooky that both you and Dominic W S are into the chronicle, but I don’t blame you for taking a break. Furthermore, as I am only about half-way through the first book I am specially grateful to you both for not revealing any spoilers. It it looking a bit dark.