All the longing, excitement and poignant comedy of adolescence are captured in Elizabeth Jane Howard's first novel The Beautiful Visit, about a young girl growing up in the years around the First World War.

Life had been distinctly lacking in possibilities - until The Visit. But, ever afterwards, just remembering the smell of the Lancings' house would enrapture her, taking her 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, it is a novel full of love, loss, and the ever-lasting effect of war.