LIFE CLASS

It is the spring of 1914 and a group of young students at the Slade School of Art have gathered in Henry Tonks's studio for a life-drawing class. Paul Tarrant, frustrated by his lack of progress, is easily distracted by an intriguing fellow student, Elinor Brooke. But when Kit Neville - himself not long out of the Slade but already a well-known painter - makes it clear that he, too, is attracted to Elinor, Paul withdraws into a passionate affair with an artist's model, ignoring the complications and dangers presented by her estranged husband. As spring turns to summer, Paul and Elinor each reach a crisis in their relationships until finally, in the first few days of war, they turn to each other.

Paul's new life as a volunteer for the Belgian Red Cross is a world away from his days at the Slade. As he tends to the mutilated, dying soldiers from the front line, he often thinks of Elinor and of the life-drawing class, but the longer he remains in Ypres, the greater the distance between himself and home becomes. By the time he returns, Paul must confront not only the overwhelming, perhaps impossible challenge of how to express all that he has seen and experienced, but also the fact that life, and love, will never be the same for him again. Life Class is an unforgettable picture of young people learning the ordinary lessons of early adulthood in the midst of extraordinary times.