Sling Camp

The Great War is beginning, and the still roads of Figheldean are about to change forever.

For Oswald Fielding, life turns to iron and steam as he apprentices in the engine yards, his days measured by the pulse of pistons and the glow of furnaces that send soldiers toward an uncertain horizon. For his dearest friend Berty Lowe, duty lies at the front, and every letter he sends home is a promise that the world will hold together a little longer.

As the war deepens, Oswald meets Margot Baker—a Canadian nurse at Bulford, whose steadiness and quiet wit ease the long ache of partings. Their friendship grows in the narrow hours between duty and departure, a peace neither dares to name.

When news of Berty’s death comes through, Margot finds Oswald at the Bulford siding, hands resting on the rails that once linked their worlds. Together they stand in the hush after loss, where grief begins, quietly, to take another shape.

Through years of telegrams and train whistles, evacuations and blackouts, Sling Camp follows a story of loss and renewal—of lives drawn forward on iron lines and hopes held together by letters, maps, and the courage to begin again. By 1919, with peace at last, Oswald and Margot stand ready to rebuild what remains.

Through the changing seasons of Wiltshire and the shadows of war, Sling Camp continues the story begun in Beneath the Walnut Tree, tracing how memory, friendship, and love endure even as the world remakes itself.