You are probably familiar with Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh which follows the fortunes and misfortunes of an upper-class Englishman and his circle in the first half of the twentieth century. You may also be familiar with multivolume Dance to The Music of Time, which similarly follows a group of friends from 1920's prep school well into the 1960's. If you an American, however, you may be completely unaware of the even longer cycle of novels centered, at least initially on the louche and unsavory Fielding Grey and his much wider circle of connections, some near and some distant and focussed on the post-WWII period and upto contemporary times.
The first set of ten books have been gathered in the three-volume Alms for Oblivion set, which be warned are organized in publication order vs. internal chronological order. It is not just Fielding himself, who indulges in questionable behavior. The entire slate of characters are often slippery in one way or another social standing not withstanding.
This followed by the seven books of First Born Egypt series which follows mostly the next generation in the form of the off-spring of those in AFO. If anything, these privileged tykes indulge in even more sketchy antics than their elders. These books take the partly nostalgic, partly cynical tone of Brideshead and Dance, and give it a satirical, acidic twist.
As bit of palate cleanser and much lighter fare, set in between the two is The Roses of Picardy, a treasure hunt caper involving some of our familiar cast from both series and a touch of the occult.
by econoquist