South Riding

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I lean against that gate in the ivied wall under the ash tree, and hear the clump of farm horse hoofs coming from the drinking pond, and see the sunset beyond the horse pasture and the sixty-acre stretch that lies, dark plough-land, up to the flaming sky.” Winifred Holtby, 1934 Personally, I am a feminist … because I dislike everything that feminism implies. … I want to be about the work in which my real interests lie … But while … injustice is done and opportunity denied to the great majority of women, I shall have to be a feminist. [4] This book is set in the early 1930s in the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire. It’s an ensemble piece, structured around the activities of local government and the ways they intersect with the characters’ lives. Most versions of the cover feature Sarah Burton, the fiery, progressive new headmistress at the local girls’ school, and she’s one of the most important characters, but there are others: the elderly alderwoman, Mrs. Beddows; the gentleman farmer, Robert Carne, and his troubled daughter, Midge; the bright but impoverished teenager, Lydia Holly; the hedonistic but devout preacher, Councillor Huggins. South Riding follows these characters (and more*--it’s a story about an entire community) over two years, with chapters alternating among various characters.

Winifred Holtby: author, feminist, campaigner - The Guardian Winifred Holtby: author, feminist, campaigner - The Guardian

Tiene un claro trasfondo, se ve de lejos que lo que la autora pretende es dejar un mensaje y escribe el libro con cierto propósito. If female friendship can be highly intense, it’s also deeply mysterious, its ineffability almost always better described in novels than in nonfiction. For this reason, perhaps, I hadn’t expected to find certain of its extremities quite so effectively mapped in a new collection of letters by Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby, writers who are relatively little read today, and perhaps thought rather dusty by some (Brittain, celebrated for Testament of Youth, her memoir of the first world war, is the better known of the two, though her name has certainly faded since the late 1970s, when Virago reissued that book, and the BBC adapted it for television). But there it is. This deceptively gentle volume somehow gets to the heart of the matter, which has to do not only with need and approval, confidence and competition, but also with (sorry to bring this up) the patriarchy. Where else, in a world that is so often against her, is a woman supposed to find solidarity but with a sympathetic, like-minded sister? And yet, how this situation also sets us against one another. I found these letters completely fascinating. They contain no juicy literary gossip, and most are not especially well written. But the relationship at their centre is endlessly intriguing, and when these young women outline their burgeoning ideas about their careers, marriage, happiness and freedom, it’s touching and inspiring. Neither one is afraid of ambition. Can a man ever offer the same understanding to a woman as a member of her own sex? On this, at least, the two of them are equally certain. The answer must be no. Such obliviousness. Such incuriosity. As Brittain writes of her (mostly) kind and stimulating husband: “He never says: ‘Tell me some more!’” I didn't read about Winnifred Holtby ever visiting America, but what I was watching reminded a whole lot of Chicago rather than Yorkshire. Somehow, though, they embarked on their passionate friendship: a falling in love, of a kind. After Oxford, they flatshared in Bloomsbury, and for the rest of Holtby’s life, they more often lived together than not, an arrangement that didn’t change even after Brittain married and had children; eventually, Holtby moved in with her and Catlin, taking over the childcare when they were away. She was happy to do this, for all that she was now a published novelist and a prolific journalist, but what amazes is that Brittain was so casual about her generosity, accepting it as her due.

In 2018, we commissioned the York Archaeological Trust to carry out ‘Food for Thought’, a project exploring the history and archaeological landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds. Find out more in our Research Magazine. I do have one issue with the book that bears mentioning. The plot doesn’t fit together quite as well as most ensemble pieces; Holtby perhaps got a little carried away with her ability to write great characters, and spent disproportionate time on some secondary players. Alfred Huggins is the chief offender here (I’ve called him a protagonist above, because of the number of chapters starring him, but he has little interaction with or impact on any of the others), followed by the Sawdons. Also, I doubt many people will read South Riding for its language alone: Holtby has the good journalist’s ability to get to the heart of the matter without excess verbiage, but her use of words is rarely memorable. Winifred Holtby was a committed socialist and feminist who wrote the classic South Riding as a warm yet sharp social critique of the well-to-do farming community she was born into.

South Riding by Winifred Holtby | Goodreads

The book is set in the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire: the inspiration being the East Riding rather than South Yorkshire; Holtby's mother, Alice, was the first alderwoman on the East Riding County Council. [1] 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. Además hay que tener en cuenta que cuando un libro está narrado desde el punto de vista de diferentes personajes siempre habrá algunos que no te despierten demasiado interés y por lo tanto hagan la lectura más irregular. A mí esto me pasó con personajes como Huggins, que si bien tienen el mismo mérito que cualquier otro en su construcción, personalmente no me interesaba y prefería seguir explorando otros. A parte toda la trama política de las elecciones, aunque sé que es muy importante, también se me hacía algo cuesta arriba. A BBC television adaptation by Andrew Davies, starring Anna Maxwell Martin and David Morrissey, was produced in 2010 [8] [9] and broadcast in February 2011.Sarah Waters, a well-respected UK author, who said, ‘I can’t say enough good things about this book.’ Minute Drama: Winifred Holtby - The Crowded Street Episode 1 of 10". BBC Online. BBC . Retrieved 19 January 2017. Sarah Burton is a 38 year old spinster, small, plain, red headed and spunky. She is the new head mistress of the South Riding High School. All of the characters have chapters in the book that unfold as they relate to Sarah or to the local government. Life is changing in this era. The landed aristocracy is losing its grip and urbanization and industrialization are altering every day life. Progressive ideas and opportunities for women are shifting the family and society. Can you be optimistic to a fault? I like these thoughts of Sarah when she first arrives at the school. If she is wrong she is beautifully wrong. Holtby passed the entrance exam for Oxford’s Somerville College in 1917 but, deeply influenced by her experiences and personal beliefs, chose to take up war work instead. The first episode aired on BBC One 20 February 2011, the two remaining on the following Sundays. In the United States, it aired on the PBS anthology series Masterpiece in May 2011. [1] Cast [ edit ]