Mary Robson is a young Yorkshire woman, married to her solid, unromantic cousin, John.
Together they battle to preserve Mary’s neglected inheritance, her beloved farm, Anderby Wold. This labour of love – and the benevolent tyranny of traditional Yorkshire ways – have made Mary old before her time. Then into her purposeful life comes David Rossitur, red-haired, charming, eloquent: how can she help but love him?
But David is a young man from a different England, radical and committed to social change. As their confrontation and its consequences inevitably unfold, Mary’s life and that of the calm village of Anderby are changed forever.
‘By God, I’m going to spin’
Winifred Holtby wrote South Riding, a grand sweep of 1930s life in Yorkshire’s sea-facing flatlands, quite literally against a deadline. She completed the novel only weeks before her death, and the...
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