| YEAR | TIME OF YEAR | CHARLES & SEBASTIAN | JULIA & REX |
| 1865/6 | Lord Marchmain born | ||
| 1900 | Bridey born | ||
| 1903 | Sebastian born | ||
| October | Charles born | ||
| 1905 | Julia born | ||
| 1911 | Cordelia born | ||
| 1914 | Lord Marchmain joins the Yeomanry and goes to fight in France | ||
| 1915 | Charles’s mother dies in Bosnia; Aunt Philippa comes to help in the house | ||
| 1916 | Aunt Philippa opens up her own house in Surrey | ||
| 1918 | Lord Marchmain forms an attachment with Cara and refuses to come back to his family home | ||
| 1921 | Aunt Philippa moves abroad | ||
| 1922 | October | Charles & Sebastian go up to Oxford; Jasper’s visit and advice | |
| 1923 | March | Sebastian sick through Charles’s window; they meet | |
| Easter | Charles & Collins holiday in Ravenna | ||
| June | Eights Week; Charles visits Brideshead for the first time; Jasper’s Grand Remonstrance | Julia is enjoying success as a debutante | |
| the next day | Anthony Blanche takes Charles to a restaurant in Thame | ||
| soon after | Charles starts the long vac at home | ||
| August | Telegram from Sebastian; Charles goes to Brideshead | Julia meets Charles at station; Julia goes to Cap Ferrat & meets Rex | |
| September | Charles & Sebastian go to Venice for 2 weeks; Charles meets Lord Marchmain & Cara | ||
| October | Charles & Sebastian return to London | ||
| the next day | Charles & Sebastian go back to Oxford (2nd year) | ||
| soon after | Charles joins Ruskin School of Art | ||
| a little later | Charles meets Lady Marchmain on her visit to Oxford to see Samgrass | ||
| November | Julia brings Rex to Oxford to visit Sebastian | ||
| a week later | Charles, Sebastian & Boy go to Julia’s ball & to the Old 100th & get arrested. Rex gets the boys out of jail. | Julia’s charity ball. | |
| the next day | Charles & Boy are fined 5/- | ||
| a week later | Sebastian is fined £10 in the magistrate’s court; there is press coverage | ||
| a little later | Charles, Sebastian & Boy are gated for the rest of term & watched by Samgrass | ||
| Christmas | Charles goes to his uncle’s | ||
| a little later | Charles goes to Brideshead | ||
| New Year | Julia, Rex & party leave to go elsewhere | ||
| 1924 | January 10 ? | Charles & Sebastian go to stay at Charles’s house | |
| January 20 ? | Charles & Sebastian return to Oxford for a new term | ||
| Hilary Term | Sebastian’s drinking & behaviour get worse | ||
| Easter Week | Charles at Brideshead | By this time Rex is indispensable to Julia | |
| a week later | Sebastian’s drunkenness is apparent to all | ||
| the next day | Sebastian flees to Charles’s house without Charles; Lady Marchmain gives Ned’s book to Charles | ||
| May | Charles & Sebastian return to Oxford; they find it is not the same | Julia sees Rex coming out of Brenda Champion’s house & is jealous; Rex & Julia make love & get engaged | |
| June | Charles & Sebastian look for lodgings for the next term | ||
| mid-June ? | Lady Marchmain visits Oxford; Sebastian gets very drunk again | ||
| two days later | Lady Marchmain takes Sebastian away | ||
| end of term (late June) | Charles goes home & tells his father that he wants to study art | ||
| early July ? | Lady Marchmain’s letter to Charles; Sebastian goes to stay with his father | Rex sees Brenda Champion again; Julia takes against her religion | |
| September | Charles goes to Paris to study art | ||
| September ? | Sebastian & Samgrass start on Tour of the Levant | ||
| October ? | Sebastian escapes from Samgrass in Constantinople | ||
| early December | Sebastian meets up with Samgrass in Syria | ||
| Christmas | Charles goes to his uncle’s; Sebastian goes missing in London | Julia refuses to make her Christmas Communion | |
| December 27 | Charles, Sebastian & Samgrass arrive at Brideshead; Samgrass shows photos of their Tour | ||
| December 28 | The hunt; Charles gives Sebastian money; Sebastian cuts the hunt to go drinking | Rex arrives at Brideshead with ‘obscene’ tortoise for Julia | |
| December 29 | Sebastian tells Charles that he is no help; Charles sees Lady Marchmain and leaves, he thinks for ever | ||
| 1925 | January | Cordelia secretly gets drink for Sebastian; Julia reveals Samgrass’s deceit | |
| mid-January | Charles receives a letter from Cordelia | ||
| late January | Lady Marchmain asks Rex to take Sebastian to Zurich; Sebastian escapes from Rex; Rex visits Charles & tells him the latest news in Paillard’s; Sebastian goes to stay with Anthony Blanche in Marseilles | Rex visits Lord Marchmain at Monte Carlo and gets permission to marry Julia | |
| March ? | Rex’s instruction starts; Fr Mowbray finds Rex the most difficult convert he has met | ||
| April (a week later) | Fr Mowbray puzzled by Rex’s odd ideas; Cordelia admits deliberately teasing him | ||
| May | Engagement of Julia & Rex announced | ||
| late May | Bridey’s ‘bombshell’ | ||
| early June | Lord Marchmain gives permission for a Protestant marriage | ||
| mid-June | Julia & Rex are married at the Savoy Chapel | ||
| September ? | Julia finds out that Rex is still seeing Brenda Champion | ||
| late 1925? | Sebastian and Anthony Blanche move to Tangier; Sebastian meets Kurt | ||
| 1926 | before May | Anthony Blanche goes back to England; Sebastian & Kurt move to Fez | |
| May | Charles returns to London for the General Strike (May 4–12); Party for the Black Birds; Charles meets Anthony Blanche & hears about Sebastian | ||
| May 13 | Julia asks Charles to find Sebastian & bring him back to his dying mother | ||
| a few days later | Charles arrives in Fez & talks to Consul; Charles meets Kurt | ||
| the next day | Charles finds Sebastian in hospital, too ill to travel | ||
| for a week | Charles visits Sebastian every day | ||
| May 24 ? | Charles hears that Lady Marchmain is dead | ||
| late May | Charles arranges financial security for Sebastian | ||
| soon after | Charles takes P&O ship from Tangier; Lady Marchmain is buried at Brideshead; the chapel is closed up | ||
| early June | Charles arrives in London & informs Bridey of the situation; Bridey commissions Charles to paint Marchmain House | ||
| June | Charles paints four pictures of the House | ||
| early July ? | Charles dines with Cordelia at the Ritz | ||
| summer | Julia learns that she needs an operation to have a baby | ||
| late 1920s | Sebastian & Kurt move to Athens | ||
| 1930 | Charles marries Celia; Julia is at the wedding; Charles’s first exhibition | ||
| 1931? | Johnjohn born | ||
| 1934 | Celia has an affair; Charles travels to Mexico & central America to paint there for two years | ||
| 1934? | Kurt is rounded up and brought back to Germany | ||
| 1935 | Caroline born | Julia has stillborn daughter | |
| 1935? | Sebastian finds Kurt in an SA uniform; Kurt absconds, is caught & put in a concentration camp; Kurt hangs himself after a week | ||
| 1936 | Cordelia goes to Spain; Sebastian has disappeared | Julia has an affair & goes to New York | |
| Summer | Charles meets Celia in New York & they return home on a liner; storm; Charles meets Julia; they make love | Rex makes Brideshead ‘a nest of party mutiny’ | |
| a month later | Private view of Charles’s pictures; Celia finds out about Charles & Julia; Charles meets Anthony Blanche again; Charles joins Julia at Brideshead | ||
| during the year | Sebastian finds out about Kurt’s death & returns to north Africa | ||
| 1937 | Christmas | Bridey gives Charles a photo of himself dressed as a Knight of Malta | |
| 1938 | January | Bridey invites Charles to a dining club | |
| Summer | Bridey announces his engagement to Beryl; Julia has an hysterical fit | ||
| a little later | Charles agrees to the proposed divorce arrangements | ||
| September | Rex makes a rabid speech in Parliament about the Munich agreement | ||
| November | Cordelia arrives from Spain with news of Sebastian; he is a hanger-on at a monastery near Carthage | ||
| December | Bridey marries Beryl; Lord Marchmain meets them in Rome; Charles’s divorce case is heard in the court | ||
| 1939 | January | Lord Marchmain arrives home | |
| end of February | Lord Marchmain makes the decision to take a drive in the grounds, but loses interest | ||
| Easter | Lord Marchmain has no good spells now; Bridey thinks he should see a priest, but Lord Marchmain declines pointedly to receive him | ||
| June | Charles’s divorce is made absolute; Celia marries Robin; Charles is put on the reserve list at the War Office | ||
| mid-July | Julia sends for Fr Mackay, who absolves Lord Marchmain; Lord Marchmain dies; Charles & Julia separate | ||
| September | Julia’s divorce is made absolute; Charles joins the Army | ||
| early 1940s | Charles becomes a Catholic | ||
| 1943 or 1944 | February/March | Charles is weary of the Army; Charles finds himself at Brideshead again; the chapel is open again | Rex is Minister for Whatever-it-is; Julia & Cordelia are nursing in Palestine; Bridey is also there with the Yeomanry |