Kathy Martin's Blog - Posts Tagged "winifred-holtby"
My Favourite Fictional Heroine
According to my marketing guru, aka my husband Alastair, I missed a trick a few days ago when #womeninfiction was trending on Twitter. Apparently, I should have used it as an excuse to tweet relentlessly about my 2012 book, Who’s Who in Women’s Historical Fiction. I daresay he’s right but, not for the first time, I turned a deaf ear to his sound advice. Instead, I sat down with my own copy of the book and spent a happy half hour revisiting my favourite female characters from historical fiction.
There are many that I love for various different reasons but, after a great deal of deliberation, I came to the conclusion that my absolute favourite has to be Sarah Burton from South Riding by Winifred Holtby. For any readers unfamiliar with the novel, here’s my summary of Sarah as it appears in my book:
“A 39-year-old teacher who has returned to her native South Riding [a fictitious part of Yorkshire] after an absence of many years, Miss Burton is full of enthusiasm when she takes up her new position as headmistress of Kiplington Girls’ High School. The daughter of a drunken blacksmith who accidentally drowned himself and a capable District Nurse, she is lively, competent, and very forward-thinking. Intelligence and hard work have won her degrees from Leeds and Oxford and now, with wide experience gained in London and South Africa, she is eager to run a school of her own.
Modern, enterprising and determined to improve her school, she has an attractive zest for life and a burning desire to equip her pupils with the tools they will need to make the best of their lives. A series of disappointing love affairs has persuaded her that she is better off on her own, but instead of regretting her single status she channels all her energy into her work. Yet her warm, passionate nature is not well suited to a celibate life and before long she finds herself unwillingly drawn to a handsome and troubled adversary.
The character and appearance of Sarah Burton are so vividly drawn that she fairly bounces off the pages. She is a small, slight woman with vivid, wiry red hair and slender ankles. Facially she is not pretty – her nose is too large, her mouth too wide and her light green eyes too small – yet people are attracted to her for the neatness of her figure and vitality of her nature. Her expression is candid and her smile both friendly and challenging.”
Best Sarah Burton quote: “I was born to be a spinster and by God I’m going to spin.”
There are many that I love for various different reasons but, after a great deal of deliberation, I came to the conclusion that my absolute favourite has to be Sarah Burton from South Riding by Winifred Holtby. For any readers unfamiliar with the novel, here’s my summary of Sarah as it appears in my book:
“A 39-year-old teacher who has returned to her native South Riding [a fictitious part of Yorkshire] after an absence of many years, Miss Burton is full of enthusiasm when she takes up her new position as headmistress of Kiplington Girls’ High School. The daughter of a drunken blacksmith who accidentally drowned himself and a capable District Nurse, she is lively, competent, and very forward-thinking. Intelligence and hard work have won her degrees from Leeds and Oxford and now, with wide experience gained in London and South Africa, she is eager to run a school of her own.
Modern, enterprising and determined to improve her school, she has an attractive zest for life and a burning desire to equip her pupils with the tools they will need to make the best of their lives. A series of disappointing love affairs has persuaded her that she is better off on her own, but instead of regretting her single status she channels all her energy into her work. Yet her warm, passionate nature is not well suited to a celibate life and before long she finds herself unwillingly drawn to a handsome and troubled adversary.
The character and appearance of Sarah Burton are so vividly drawn that she fairly bounces off the pages. She is a small, slight woman with vivid, wiry red hair and slender ankles. Facially she is not pretty – her nose is too large, her mouth too wide and her light green eyes too small – yet people are attracted to her for the neatness of her figure and vitality of her nature. Her expression is candid and her smile both friendly and challenging.”
Best Sarah Burton quote: “I was born to be a spinster and by God I’m going to spin.”
