"The summer of 1911 was one of the high sunlit meadows of English history. A new king was crowned and the aristocracy was at play, bounding from one house party to the next - the socialite Lady Michelham travelled with her nineteen yards of pearls. The Ballets Russes arrived for the first time in London and people swarmed into Covent Garden to see Nijinsky's gravity-defying leaps.

Rupert Brooke, then a 23-year-old poet - in love with love, Keats, marrons glaces and truth - swam in the river at Grantechester.

"But perfection was over-reaching itself. The country was brought to a near standstill by industrial strikes, and unrest exposed the chasm between privileged and poor. Temperatures climbed to a record 100 degrees, and by August The Times had discontinued its no-longer newsworthy column, 'Deaths from the Heat'. Children, seeking relief from the scorching sun, drowned in village ponds.".

"Through the eyes of a series of exceptional individuals among them a debutante, a choirboy, a politician, a trade unionist, a butler and the Queen - Juliet Nicolson illuminates a turning point in history. With the gifts of a great storyteller, and drawing on material from sources both intimate and rarely seen, she rekindles a vision of a time when the sun shone and its shadows fell on all."--BOOK JACKET.