South Riding

 When I finish the Penmarric blog I hope to write about South Riding, by Winifred Holtby.  It is  a drama set in Yorkshire, in the 1930s and was her last book before her tragically early death.  The heroine is Sarah Burton, who has just become headmistress of a girls High school.  Sarah is liberal minded and wants to use her job to help the girls get a better education, and to improve social conditions generally.  But she does have a tendency to fall in love with men who often dont agree with her political beliefs.  The story covers the middle classes of Yorkshire and the poor who are suffering from the Great Depression... Sarah tries to help young Lydia Holley, a girl from a very poor background, whose mother dies after having several children while living in a railway carriage. She becomes friends with Mrs Beddowes from a well to do middle class family who is on the local council, and through her gets to know Robert Carne, a gentleman farmer who married into the aristocracy and ends up in dire financial straits.

the book starts with Sarah taking over headship of the High School, and clashing frequently with Robert Carne.  He is on the local council and sees himself as the ratepayer's friend, which tends to mean that he is generally in favour of cutting aid to the poor.  He is in trouble financially himself because he married a young upper class woman who was very neurotic and has ended up in a home for the mentally ill, and he tries hard to pay for her to be as comfortable as possible though he's been told she will never recover.  His daughter is now going to the high school and she too is spoiled and rather neurotic, causing spats more spats between Carne and Sarah. 

She makes friends with another councillor Joe Astell who is a strong socialist, and who has given up union work on Clydeside because he has TB and needs a less strenuous job.  But he is frustrated by the small help that his work as a councillor can give to the poor.    He likes Sarah but thinks she is not radical enough. 

Carne is in increasingly serious financial straits and realises that he will have to sell his land and perhaps ask his wife's family to help look after her and Midge. 

Holtby's work is not simplistic.  she portrays many different people on the council, and shows that not all liberals are good, nor conservatives necessarily bad.  Sometimes, her liberal characters do good by accident, at times, improvements occur because of a desire by some individuals to make money.  Sarah disagrees vehemently with Carne but she is a little in love with him.  

As Carnes' financial problems get worse, he considers moving his wife to a new care home, and moving to Manchester where he can get a job.  He meets Sarah there, on a holiday, and they decide to spend the night together.  However, Carne has a heart attack before they can make love.