South Riding

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Other literary contemporaries at Somerville College included Hilda Reid, Margaret Kennedy and Sylvia Thompson.

This isn't a book about politicking, but it is a story involving local government during a time of economic depression, and Holtby's progressive beliefs do shine through in the way the characters think about their world and the effects of their decisions.

There is a huge cast of characters, complex and flawed, such as Alderman Emma Beddows, it illustrates the repercussions of the enormous loss of men in WW1, and covers local government politics. The leading characters are Sarah Burton, an idealistic young headmistress; Robert Carne of Maythorpe Hall, tormented by his disastrous marriage; Joe Astell, a socialist fighting poverty; and Mrs Beddows, the first woman alderman of the district. Beddows’ nearly forgotten message) she would have been incomplete, with no knowledge of suffering save at second-hand. In the tv version, Sarah and Robert Carne do talk about their night together, they part on loving terms, Sarah declares her love at his graveside in public, then resigns, then actually gets into the train and his talked out of it with Mrs.

On another, it’s a feminist book concerned with the destinies of women from different points along the social spectrum, both young and old. Only at the end, I think, where the shadows disperse and the sky brightens, does the author’s hand lose a little of its sureness. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from this blog’s author is prohibited. In addition to the 1938 film, which was rereleased both during and just after the second world war, the book was dramatised on several occasions for radio – one version as recently as 2005 – and in 1974 was adapted by the novelist Stan Barstow for an acclaimed TV series.In the tv version, Sarah still had her wartime romance but never loved another man since (though as she informs another character "there were other men - none of them meant anything!

I've seen this book criticized for the space devoted to mundane aspects of adult life--the book focuses as much on the characters' working lives as their personal ones--but that's one of the reasons I loved it. Winifred Holtby (23 Jun 1898 - 29 Sep 1935) was an English novelist and journalist, now best known for her novel "South Riding", which was posthumously published in 1936. The first edition, first impression, of Winifred Holtby's best known work, 'South Riding', in the original decorative illustrated. Sarah Waters, a well-respected UK author, who said, ‘I can’t say enough good things about this book. I only came across her through her link with Vera Brittain (as depicted in the relatively recent film adaptation of Testament of Youth).Much as I admire Winifred Holtby for her courageous feminism, peace activism and all the rest - this novel is such a mish mash - and it’s looong - it’s a modern (1930s) version of Jane Eyre complete with a taciturn, tragic but honourable version of Mr Rochester with a mad wife in an expensive care facility which is sending him bankrupt - a daughter who is somewhat hysterical and potentially ‘tainted’ so needs very careful handling - a spunky working class heroine who has managed to get an education and instead of being the governess, is the headmistress of the local girls high school, where the wobbly and unpopular young Rochester girl ends up being sent due to the family’s wealth having been eaten up by luxury sanatoriums. This enables Holtby to deal with the issues she felt were important; education, public health and the eradication of treatable diseases, ignorance, poverty and unemployment. Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby had lived together in London after graduation and remained very close friends throughout Holtby's lifetime. Rochester of Jane Eyre fame, and a fascinatingly both similar and very different one from the simultanously written and more well known update, Maxim de Winter in Rebecca. The main characters are Sarah Burton, a young headmistress, Joe Astell, a poverty-fighting socialist, Robert Carne, a conservative who is tormented by a disastrous marriage, and Mrs.