Book description
The community of South Riding, like the rest of the country, lives in
the long shadow of war. Blighted by recession and devastated by the
loss, they must also come to terms with significant social change.
Forward-thinking and ambitious, Sarah Burton is the embodiment of such
change. After the death of her fiancé, she returns home to Yorkshire
focused on her career as headmistress of the local school. But not
everyone can embrace the new social order. Robert Carne, a force of
conservatism, stands firmly against Sarah. A tormented man, he carries
a heavy burden that locks him in the past.
As the villagers of South Riding adjust to Sarah's arrival and face
the changing world, emotions run high, prejudices are challenged and
community spirit is tested.
Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House) and David Morrissey lead an
outstanding cast in this rich and panoramic portrait of community in
turmoil. Winifred Holtby's little-known and hard-to-find literary gem
is a magnificent masterpiece, to be joyfully rediscovered by a whole
new generation of readers.
Winifred Holtby was born in 1898, the daughter of David Holtby, a
prosperous Yorkshire farmer, and Alice Holtby, the first alderwoman in
Yorkshire. Educated at home by a governess and then at a boarding
school, Holtby passed the entrance exam for Somerville College but
left in early 1918 to join the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps . After
the war she returned to Somerville College where she met Vera Brittain
and the two became life-long friends. They graduated together in 1921
and moved to London where they hoped to establish themselves as
writers. But where Vera's first two novels, The Dark Tide
(1923) and Not Without Honour (1925) met with little success,
Winifred had much more of an impact with Anderby Wold (1923),
The Crowded Street (1924) and The Land of Green Ginger
(1927).
Holtby was diagnosed with Bright's Disease (sclerosis of the
kidneys) in 1932, and was told she would only have two or three years
to live. Determined to get as much work done as possible before the
disease took its inevitable toll she put all her energy into what
became her most important book, South Riding. Winifred Holtby
died on 29th September 1935. South Riding was published the following
year and was highly praised by the critics.
