This is the story of Muriel Hammond, at twenty living within the suffocating confines of Edwardian middle-class society in Marshington, a Yorkshire village. A career is forbidden to her. Pretty, but not pretty enough, she fails to achieve the one thing required of her - to find a suitable husband. Then comes the First World War, a watershed which tragically revolutionises the lives of her generation. But for Muriel it offers work, friendship, freedom, and one last chance to find a special kind of happiness...

A new TV tie-in edition of Winifred Holtby's classic novel, accompanying Andrew Davies's ("Bleak House, " "Little Dorrit")three-part adaptation
The community of South Riding, like the rest of England, lives in the long shadow of war. Blighted by recession and devastated by the loss, they must also come to terms with significant social change. Forward-thinking and ambitious, Sarah Burton is the embodiment of such change. After the death of her fiance, she returns home to Yorkshire focused on her career as headmistress of the local schoolbut not everyone can embrace the new social order....