The stranger's child: a novel

"In the summer of 1913, George Sawle brings his Cambridge schoolmate--a handsome, aristocratic young poet named Cecil Valance--to his family's home outside London. George is enthralled by Cecil, and soon his sister, Daphne, is equally besotted by him. During his visit, Cecil writes a poem that, after he is killed in the Great War, will go on to become a touchstone for a generation, a work recited by every schoolchild in England. Over time, a tragic love story is spun, even as other secrets lie buried--until, decades later, an ambitious biographer threatens to unearth them"--Back cover