Book description
When Sarah Burton returns to her hometown as headmistress she is full
of ambition, determined to create a great school and to inspire her
girls to take all they can from life. But in the aftermath of the First
World War, the country is in depression and ideals are hard won. Lydia
Holly, the scholarship girl from the shacks, is the most brilliant
student Sarah has ever taught, but when her mother's health fails, her
education must be sacrificed - there is nobody else to care for the
children. Robert Carne of Maythorpe Hall stands for everything Sarah
despises: his family has farmed the South Riding for generations, their
position uncontested. Yet Sarah cannot help being drawn to this proud,
haunted - and almost ruined - man. South Riding is a rich, panoramic
novel, bringing vividly to life a rural community on the brink of
change. Winifred Holtby (1898-1935), journalist, critic, feminist,
pacifist and author won the James Tait Black Memorial prize with South
Riding, her last novel. Shirley Williams was born to Vera Brittain in
1930. She was a member of the Labour Party for 35 years before later
becoming leader of the Liberal Democrats. She continues to lecture and
serves as an advisor on Nuclear Proliferation to Gordon Brown.
