The first book in Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End tetralogy, beautifully narrated in this audiobook version by Bill Nighy (He Do the Police in Different Voices). The slow, patient accumulation of character detail had me gripped from the beginning when Christopher Tietjens and Vincent Macmaster are on the train to Rye for a weekend of golf. The sense of period is immense: Edwardian, stiff, snobbish, superior, imperial, class-obsessed, on the cusp of war. I have to admit that, as an audiobook, I sometimes felt lost in the non-linear narrative (Tietjens is back from the war in part 2 - had I missed a bit?!), but I let it wash over me like an oil painting, focusing on the tiny brushstrokes and trusting that, over time, enough of the bigger picture would clarify. (And, when I read the Wikipedia plot summary afterwards, I realized that I really hadn't missed much of the story and nuance.) It truly is a masterpiece of audiobook narration by Nighy. And I have continued straight on to No More Parades.