'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times

When peace breaks out, it surprises and unsettles familiar wartime routines, and the residents of Barsetshire seem as disconcerted as they are overjoyed. Nevertheless, as the county's eligible young men return home, the social round regains its old momentum. Before long, everyone is spinning in a flurry of misunderstandings and engagements.

The older generation, though, sees that the world will never be the same again.

Both wry and poignant, Peace Breaks Out was written in the tumultuous year that it was set. It is an unforgettable portrait of the joy and misgivings felt in the final days of the Second World War.