From the lauded, bestselling author of The Cazalet Chronicles, After Julius is Elizabeth Jane Howard's funny yet touching story of a family brought together yet falling apart.

''A novel that commands both respect and applause'' – Sunday Times

It is twenty years since Julius died, but his last heroic action still affects the lives of the people he left behind.

Emma, his youngest daughter, twenty-seven years old and afraid of men. Cressida, her sister, a war widow, blindly searching for love in her affairs with married men. Esme, Julius's widow, still attractive at fifty-eight, but aimlessly lost in the routine of her perfect home. Felix, Esme's old lover, who left her when Julius died and who is still plagued by guilt for his action. And then there is Dan – an outsider.

Throughout a disastrous – and revelatory – weekend in Sussex, the influence of the dead Julius slowly emerges . . .

''Her talent seemed so effervescent, so unstoppable, that there was no predicting where it might take her'' - Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall