The Upstart

Product Description

Suddenly risen to power & influence, Samuel Fairbrother, manufacturer & retailer of boots, shoes & clogs, decided that his new station in life deserved a more imposing residence. Accordingly he bought himself a thirty-four-roomed mansion situated on the outskirts of Fellburn. With the house came the butler, Maitl&, who at once made plain his belief that Samuel, far from the gentleman his predecessor had been, was no more than an upstart.

So began a clash of wills between master & man, at which Samuel Fairbrother discovered he was at a distinct disadvantage, for Maitland was well skilled in the art of maintaining his indispensability. Fairbrother, for his part, was only too aware that he dare not dispense with Maitland's services. & so an uneasy truce was declared between them.

As the years went by & the century turned, Samuel Fairbrother saw his children, one by one, leave the big house to make lives of their own
- all except his eldest daughter Janet who, by means of a legacy, was enabled to shape the destiny of her father's scattered family & effect the reconciliation that he thought was impossible.