Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House) and David Morrissey lead an outstanding cast in this rich and panoramic portrait of a Yorkshire community in the Thirties that carries remarkable echoes of our own times. South Riding is a terrific love story, but it's also a raw and real portrait of a whole community in turmoil, with the country in recession, and bitter struggles between the advocates of change, like heroine Sarah, the new forward-thinking headmistress of the local girls' school, and the forces of conservatism embodied in Robert Carne, the gentleman farmer locked in a disastrous marriage. Though written and set in the Thirties, it explores themes and ideas instantly recognisable in any part of the country, at any time. Holtby's little-known and hard-to-find literary gem, last published in 1996 by Virago Classics, is a magnificent masterpiece, which will be joyfully rediscovered by a whole new generation of readers.