The Passing Bells is an outstanding novel of the Great War, and how one family in particular lived through the events of 1914-1918, and were irreparably changed by them. The book opens in the summer of 1914. The guns of August are rumbling, but at Abington Pryory, the summer home of the Greville family, the parties, the dances and romances carry on much as before. With the coming of the war this soft, leisurely life is shattered, yet the Grevilles and their class are still able to enter the terrible conflict as if embarking on some glorious adventure. As the horrors of war come home, the high spirits fade. The barriers between the classes start to crumble, values are questioned, old attachments broken and new romances defy traditional allegiences. The world is never to be the same again, and each person in this broad canvas of a novel is changed. From the vivid descriptions of the peaceful summer season on London's Park Lane to the terrifying battle at Gallipoli, The Passing Bells