
When Sarah Burton returns to her hometown as headmistress she is full of ambition, determined to create a great school & 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 & 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
- & almost ruined
- man. South Riding is a rich, panoramic novel, bringing vividly to life a rural community on the brink of change.