Welcome to Litsy!

The author of the bestselling Cazalet Chronicles brilliantly captures the coming-of-age hopes and yearnings of an adolescent English girl during World War I The fourth child born to a struggling musician and a mother who�s an incurable romantic, Lavinia lives an unremarkable existence. But a visit to a sprawling country estate transforms her world and becomes the touchstone for the rest of her life. Lavinia is sixteen when she�s invited to a house party given by distant acquaintances. It�s her first trip away from home, and she�s instantly mesmerized by her beautiful and lush new surroundings. Days are filled with delectable meals and skating and riding lessons; nights with parties and dancing. Lavinia adores her hosts, Lucy and Gerald Lancing, and their boisterous extended family�and the mysterious, conceited Rupert Laing, with whom she shares her first kiss. But the visit can�t last forever. Soon after she returns home, the First World War breaks out. As Lavinia matures, and other people pass through her life�including Ian Graham, the soldier who loves her yet doesn�t expect her love in return�she continues to view things through the prism of that unforgettable Christmas with the Lancings. Elizabeth Jane Howard�s debut novel about a young girl�s spiritual and emotional awakening, the painful pride of youth, and female emancipation, The Beautiful Visit is a moving montage of English life at the beginning of the last century.