the lark shall sing

This is the story of an English family of six children, 3 are young adults and 3 are 9-11 yrs old. Their parents die and they struggle to keep up the big old house they have always lived in. The eldest sister decides that they need to try some other way for one year, so she leases out the house and sends the children to school near their aunt so they can stay with her on the holidays. The elder sister takes a travelling job. The elder brother joins the military, the other sister decides to become a secretary and live in London. At the end of a year's time, the elder sister decides everyone is settled into their new lives and she begins the process of selling the house. She notifies her siblings of this decision by letter. As soon as they each receive their letters, they realize they don't want to give up their home and know that a letter will not convince their sister so they all find their way home in very interesting ways with very interesting people. There is some romance, no mystery, and very interesting character development. Where does she come up with these people? A light, humorous look into this family's life after a year away from home as they discover that life away from home isn't always what you'd expect. I highly recommend it and her other books, some of which are similar but some are more serious and involved like A Lion in the Way which reminds me of Rosemonde Pilcher's book Coming Home except this one is set in WWI and in India and England. Enjoy!