The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn
 
Deyning Park is in its heyday, the large country house filled with the laughter and excitement of privileged youth preparing for a weekend party. When Clarissa meets Tom Cuthbert, home from university, she is dazzled. Tom is handsome and enigmatic; he is also an outsider. Ambitious, clever, his sights set on a career in law, Tom is an acute observer, and a man who knows what he wants. For now, that is Clarissa. As Tom and Clarissa's friendship deepens, the wider landscape of political life around them is changing, and soon the world - and all that they know - is rocked irrevocably by a war that changes their lives for ever.