Of All Faiths & None

In the autumn of 1910 Edwin Lutyens, the renowned architect, receives a letter from Sir Julius Drewe for the commission of a castle on Dartmoor - Castle Drogo. Lutyens' design for the castle focusses on both the past and the present and reflects Britain, which at that moment is in a state of flux. His daughter, Celia, becomes enamoured with the project, dreaming of chivalry and heroism. The following year Edwin Lutyens and his family are invited to a stone-laying ceremony at Castle Drogo. Celia meets Sir Julius' children: Adrian, Christian and Basil. Adrian is staying at a farm next to where the castle is to be built and that evening a fire breaks out. Adrian runs into a blaze to rescue a trapped farmer and it is from this point that Celia's infatuation with Adrian develops.

The novel moves to 1914, and the start of the Great War. Christian Drewe is returning from Austria where he has been working as an artist. Adrian enlists on the day war is declared, driven by his sense of duty. Christian has reservations about joining up, unconvinced that the war was either necessary or right. Matters come to a head when he is handed a white feather - the sign of a coward.

The story moves from the battlefields of France and Flanders and back to London and to Castle Drogo, where the characters are reunited for brief periods. Faith and love are stretched to their limits as each character is affected by the relentless brutality of the war. Of All Faiths & None is the story of a lost generation. It is a novel that focuses on the relationships of the characters until those relationships are shattered. It is a coming-of-age tale and a social commentary on the tragedy of a needless war.