Diana by RF Delderfield

This is not one of Delderfield's better works but I've enjoyed reading it some time ago. There were originally 2 novels which were combined into the one work "Diana". The hero of the book is John (Jan) Leigh, who lives in a small seaside town in Devon in the 1920s and 30s. He lived in London as a small child but his mother died and he was taken into the care of his maternal uncles, Reuben, Mark and Luke. They are all simple west country people who lead a quiet life and work hard. Luke has a small shop, Reuben is a bit of a left wing activist and Mark has a small farm and riding school. John's father was a drunk and left his family badly off. The uncles take John in when his mother has died, and offer him chances to take over their businesses when he's grown up. He loves Devon.. He meets Diana Gaylorde Sutton in his early teens. She is the daughter of a wealthy businessman who has an estate down there, and her mother spends most of her time in London, engaging in social activities. She is a hard selfish woman, and Diana continually plays truant. She is educated by a governess. When she meets Jan, they become friends and playmates.. enjoying the countryside and having fun. As he grows older, Jan begins to fall in love with her. But he's aware that he is a poor boy without many prospects and she is a very rich heiress. Mrs Sutton gets angry at the way her daughter is behaving and begins to worry that Diana may end up losing her virginity to this country boy. Jan goes to school and has some talent for writing. He then manages to get a job on a small newspaper. Diana comes out and is a very popular deb. She smuggles Jan up to her bedroom on the night of her coming out dance, and they make love. But Jan comes to realise that although Diana claims to be in love with him, she is totally selfish and really she is just using him to rebel against her mother. She admits that she does not think she could in real life marry someone who was not rich. She goes back to London and to her society life, but after a while, she gets into trouble and John has to help her out. She was driving drunk and crashed a car and someone died, and she feels guilty. John still cares for her, but they can't agree about whether they can find a way of living that suits both of them. He wants to be independent, perhaps run a farm or riding school. Diana can't see herself married to a working man. Then, her father loses a lot of his money and commits suicide. Diana vanishes, and when Jan goes looking for her, her mother tells him that her daughter could not face being poor. She has married a French upper class man, whom she has known for some time, and gone away with him. War breaks out and Jan joins up. He marries a girl called Alison, out of loneliness. But she is killed in an air raid. Then at Dunkirk, when Jan is trying to get back to England, he meets Diana in the crowd of French refugees. She has some children that she wants to send to the UK, and once she sees him, she relies on him to help.