A profound exploration of youth at a time of war, The Beautiful Visit is the debut novel from the author of the Cazalet Chronicles, Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Life had been distinctly lacking in possibilities - until The Visit. But, ever afterwards, just remembering the smell of the Lancing's house would enrapture her, taking her back to that very first day when Lucy and Gerald had picked her up from the station . . . All the longing, excitement and poignant comedy of adolescence is captured in Elizabeth Jane Howard's first novel about a young girl growing up in the years surrounding the First World War. 'Interesting and original . . . Howard has true imagination and a kind of sensuous power. She creates a wonderful atmosphere of uneasiness and oppression; she can also draw scenes with ironic brilliance: hers seems to me to be a remarkable talent' Antonia White, New Statesman 'Distinctive, self-assured and remarkably sensual: she has always been a writer to whom smells and flavours matter a great deal' Guardian

As the First World War takes hold, a young girl comes of age in a troubled London. Capturing the longing, excitement and poignant comedy of adolescence, The Beautiful Visit is the debut novel from the beloved author of the Cazalet Chronicles, Elizabeth Jane Howard.

'She helps us to do the necessary thing – open our eyes and our hearts' – Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall

Life had been distinctly lacking in possibilities for this young girl – until The Visit. But, ever afterwards, just remembering the smell of the Lancings' house would enrapture her.

As she makes her way through life in the city, that memory will take her back – back to that very first day when Lucy and Gerald had picked her up from the station . . .

Beginning and ending with a visit to the same family, The Beautiful Visit is a novel full of love, loss, and marked by the ever-lasting effect of war.