Beautifully and poignantly told, Marking Time is the second novel in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s bestselling family saga The Cazalet Chronicles, set during the onset of World War II.
Home Place, Sussex, 1939. As the shadows of the Second World War roll in, banishing the sun-drenched days of childish games and trips to the coast, a new generation of Cazalets takes up the family’s story.
Louise, who dreams of becoming a great actress, finds herself facing the harsh reality that her parents have their own lives with secrets, passions and yearnings. Clary, an aspiring writer, learns that her beloved father, Rupert, is now missing somewhere on the shores of France. And sensitive, imaginative Polly feels stuck, haunted by her nightmares about the war.