Diane Barnes's Reviews > All Change

Here's the awful thing about finishing a series you love.......there's a real sense of grief at having to leave the characters behind. That's how I feel right now, I've been a member of this family for 20 years, seen these kids grow up, seen the adults age and die and go off in wrong directions, seen the demise of a family business and a few marriages, and was there for the last gathering at The Home Place. As with any large family, there are still some unresolved issues and crises brewing, but I'll never know what happens because I have to leave them behind.

The first book in this quintet is The Light Years, which begins in 1937 with WWII on the horizon. Subsequent books take us into the war, the post war period, and the readjustment necessary in a changed England. All Change jumps ahead 9 years to 1958 and shows us a new and different world emerging, all through the eyes of the Cazulet family. Not only the family, but the servant class is no more, good for the younger generation who have more freedom and choices, but awful for old family retainers who have nowhere to go and prefer the old ways.

And there you have the drama, the generational changes in family and tradition versus new freedoms and morals for children and grandchildren. Out with the old, in with the new, as has been the case throughout history. But family responsibilities and obligations and love remain as a constant. That's always been true as well.

So I'll just have to muddle on without them as best I can. I'll use my favorite phrase from Demelza Poldark (from another beloved series, The Poldarks).

"I am bereft."