He leaves, because Sarah's main storyline in the tv version, which is only one storyline of hers in the novel, is her not quite romance with Robert Carne. The loss must have been heartbreaking for Vera Brittain, particularly in light what happened to her loved ones during the war. Plus, there is the Carnes’ fourteen-year-old daughter Midge, a somewhat wayward child who is need of a steadying influence in her life, ideally a feminine one. There are people dying in childbirth - people dying of tuberculosis - there are social problems galore.

The book I read from was Virago Modern Classic and of course that is a portent that it is a fine book. Mrs Woolf, wife of the manager, is a very celebrated author and, in her own way, more important than Galsworthy. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.Winifred Holtby (23 Jun 1898 - 29 Sep 1935) was an English novelist and journalist, now best known for her novel "South Riding", which was posthumously published in 1936. Blighted by recession and devastated by the loss, they must also come to terms with significant social change. Carne and his reactionary politics never stop symbolizing everything Sarah is against, and she's not economially dependent on him; on the contrary, he's the one in increasing financial distress due to the depression and his inability to cope with modern times. Much as I admire Winifred Holtby for her courageous feminism, peace activism and all the rest - this novel is such a mish mash - and it’s looong - it’s a modern (1930s) version of Jane Eyre complete with a taciturn, tragic but honourable version of Mr Rochester with a mad wife in an expensive care facility which is sending him bankrupt - a daughter who is somewhat hysterical and potentially ‘tainted’ so needs very careful handling - a spunky working class heroine who has managed to get an education and instead of being the governess, is the headmistress of the local girls high school, where the wobbly and unpopular young Rochester girl ends up being sent due to the family’s wealth having been eaten up by luxury sanatoriums.

In the tv version, Sarah still had her wartime romance but never loved another man since (though as she informs another character "there were other men - none of them meant anything! Kiplington, the coastal town where Sarah Burton is headmistress, is an amalgam of Hornsea and Withernsea, the seaside towns where Holtby lodged while writing the book. Williams still possesses the copy of South Riding that her mother Vera Brittain inscribed for her father, the political scientist George Catlin.She would have remained what she was, conscientious, energetic, efficient, compassionate, with a justifiable confidence in herself and her powers. I think it’s that optimism in the face of poverty and adversity that makes it such an inspirational read. I've seen this book criticized for the space devoted to mundane aspects of adult life--the book focuses as much on the characters' working lives as their personal ones--but that's one of the reasons I loved it.

Sarah Burton, the fiery young headmistress of the local girls' school; Mrs Beddows, the district's first alderwoman—based on Holtby's own mother; and Robert Carne, the conservative gentleman-farmer locked in a disastrous marriage—with whom the radical Sarah Burton falls in love. The main characters are Sarah Burton, a young headmistress, Joe Astell, a poverty-fighting socialist, Robert Carne, a conservative who is tormented by a disastrous marriage, and Mrs. Yet this reception failed to appease Mrs Holtby, who promptly resigned from the East Riding County Council when the novel appeared, denouncing it as a "travesty". Winifred Holtby's little-known and hard-to-find literary gem is a magnificent masterpiece, to be joyfully rediscovered by a whole new generation of readers.

I never felt the book was that superior to the BBC adaptation, I never thought the characters had been betrayed by the actors who played them or by the script for that matter.