Barry Locke, Half-back

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Barry Locke arrives at Broadmoor School eager for a fresh start, only to find himself disappointed by a shabby room, a missed meeting with friend Clyde Allen, and a boarding-school life more complicated than he expected. Yet the village of Wessex quickly begins to feel alive with personality: warm, flustered Mrs. Lyle, eccentric Toby Nott with his jars, frogs, and scientific specimens, and the loyal, observant Barry himself, whose kindness draws him toward the people around him. As Barry settles in, Broadmoor reveals its sharper edges as well as its charm. At Dawson Hall, he is pulled into school politics, where Clyde warns him that the "right sort" of friends matter more than personal choice and even tries to protect his own football prospects at Barry's expense. Barry's instinct to defend others soon comes to the fore when he stands up for violinist Zo Fessenden against bullying Rusty Waterman. Meanwhile, his assumptions about status and belonging are unsettled by Peaches Jones, whose wealth, generosity, and hidden family troubles make him far more complex than he first appears.