The Deadly Playground 1914 — Robert Carter

The year is 1912. Two Oxford men are members of the same college, but they could not be more different. The first, Stanley Walker, son of a shopkeeper, is studying engineering. The second, Jimmy Barrington, son of Britain's wealthiest banker, owns a fast car. They become friends. Jimmy's birthday picnic at Port Meadow turns into a grand gathering, attended by the cream of London society, who sip champagne served by the family's butler and enjoy the late summer sunshine. Stanley is introduced to Theda, Jimmy's headstrong sister, and the other members of the Barrington clan. None of them knows -- though some suspect -- that their world is about to change forever. When war breaks out, Jimmy decides to join the Royal Flying Corps, and he persuades Stanley Walker to come with him. Soon they are embroiled in a new kind of war which starts with the German invasion of Belgium. Not all goes according to plan, however, and while Stanley sticks to his guns, Jimmy's fate takes a turn that leads him to an even stranger battlefield. The Deadly Playground is the first volume of a series that recounts the story of the prestigious Barrington family during the Great War. A tale of espionage, romance and a portrait of power and influence moving behind the scenes as the curtain rises on the first act of a Century of tumultuous conflict. Hallmarked by attention to historical detail, this novel comes with a guarantee -- that the reader will find a story that will make him or her regard the Great War in a completely new light. It is unlike any other story that has been told.