What do you think?
Rate this book
Anderby Wold
In the sleepy village of Hardrascliffe Mary Robson has finally paid off the mortgage on her beloved farm Anderby Wold.
Married to her much older and extremely passive cousin John Robson, she has created a name for herself on her own, with ceaseless philanthropy and constant hard-work.
But whilst there are many who adore her, Mary faces opposition from her husband’s sister Sarah, whose possessiveness over her brother has caused divisions in the family.
When the socialist David Rossitur visits the village he rouses excitement not only in the workers but with the mistress of Anderby Wold herself.
The farmhands see hope in Rossitur’s message and tremors begin to shake the hierarchy that has influenced village life for so long.
And Mary’s passions are split – between her farm and the ‘old ways’ of operating, and the return of youth through the figure of Mr. Rossitur.
Will Mary continue along the path that she has set herself?
Or will the changing world around her force her hand?
Anderby Wold is a moving twentieth century tale of love, hope and change.
'Courage and vitality blow like a high wind through her story' The Observer
Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) novelist, journalist and critic, was born at Rudstone, Yorkshire. Her remarkable life and tragically early death are movingly portrayed by her close friend Vera Brittain in Testament of Friendship. In this, her first novel, Winifred Holtby exhilaratingly rehearses the themes which were to come to fruition in her last and greatest work, South Riding.
Married to her much older and extremely passive cousin John Robson, she has created a name for herself on her own, with ceaseless philanthropy and constant hard-work.
But whilst there are many who adore her, Mary faces opposition from her husband’s sister Sarah, whose possessiveness over her brother has caused divisions in the family.
When the socialist David Rossitur visits the village he rouses excitement not only in the workers but with the mistress of Anderby Wold herself.
The farmhands see hope in Rossitur’s message and tremors begin to shake the hierarchy that has influenced village life for so long.
And Mary’s passions are split – between her farm and the ‘old ways’ of operating, and the return of youth through the figure of Mr. Rossitur.
Will Mary continue along the path that she has set herself?
Or will the changing world around her force her hand?
Anderby Wold is a moving twentieth century tale of love, hope and change.
'Courage and vitality blow like a high wind through her story' The Observer
Winifred Holtby (1898-1935) novelist, journalist and critic, was born at Rudstone, Yorkshire. Her remarkable life and tragically early death are movingly portrayed by her close friend Vera Brittain in Testament of Friendship. In this, her first novel, Winifred Holtby exhilaratingly rehearses the themes which were to come to fruition in her last and greatest work, South Riding.
249 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1923
22 people are currently reading
439 people want to read
About the author
Winifred Holtby
59 books78 followersWinifred 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.
She was a good friend of Vera Brittain, possibly portraying her as Delia in The Crowded Street.
She died at the age of 37.
She was a good friend of Vera Brittain, possibly portraying her as Delia in The Crowded Street.
She died at the age of 37.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
December 28, 2023
“Anderby was hers. The mortgage was paid. That was worth anything; worth unlovely dresses made in the village, worth the constant strain of economy, worth the ten years’ intimacy with a man whose presence roused in her alternate irritation and disappointment.”
One of the good things about Virago is that they publish lesser known novels. Anderby Wold is one of Holtby’s lesser known novels, indeed, her debut novel. The setting is her beloved Yorkshire and this does feel a little like a rehearsal for South Riding. Anderby Wold is a village in the Wolds, a series of hills running through Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire.
Anderby Wold is a village and farm. The farm is owned by twenty-eight year old Mary Robson. She inherited it when her father died at the age of eighteen, she also inherited the debt he had left. She married John at the age of eighteen: he was much older (over twenty years) and very solid and reliable and most importantly willing to follow her lead. He was also a little boring. The novel starts just as the debt has been paid off and Mary and John have been married for ten years.
The minor characters in this are all strong: Mary and John’s relations, the farmhands, the local schoolmaster who dislikes Mary for her appearance of being “Lady Bountiful”. The seasonal agricultural round has gone on time immemorial:
“Thus they had harvested at Anderby since those far off years when the Danes broke in across the headland and dyed with blood the trampled barley. Thus and thus had the workers passed, and the children waved their garlands following the last load home. Thus had Mary and other Mary Robsons before her welcomed the master of the harvest.”
However modern times and philosophies are at the door. A young socialist called David Rossitur is added to the equation and he talks about change, about unions, about wage increases and better working conditions. In one of those novelist quirks David is out in bad weather and is picked up by Mary in her horse and trap. He comes down with a fever and has to stay at the farm for a few days.
The work out of the differing views and the personal tensions take up the rest of the novel:
‘You stand for an ideal that is, thank Heaven, outworn. The new generation knocks at your door – a generation of men, independent, not patronized, enjoying their own rights, not the philanthropy of their exploiters, respecting themselves, not their so-called superiors. You can’t stop them, but they may stop you. You can’t shut them out, but they may shut you in.’
This is a good novel. It portrays a period of change and Holtby manages to enable the reader to have a level of sympathy for most of the characters. It does feel like a rehearsal for South Riding but it is also a strong novel in its own right.
One of the good things about Virago is that they publish lesser known novels. Anderby Wold is one of Holtby’s lesser known novels, indeed, her debut novel. The setting is her beloved Yorkshire and this does feel a little like a rehearsal for South Riding. Anderby Wold is a village in the Wolds, a series of hills running through Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire.
Anderby Wold is a village and farm. The farm is owned by twenty-eight year old Mary Robson. She inherited it when her father died at the age of eighteen, she also inherited the debt he had left. She married John at the age of eighteen: he was much older (over twenty years) and very solid and reliable and most importantly willing to follow her lead. He was also a little boring. The novel starts just as the debt has been paid off and Mary and John have been married for ten years.
The minor characters in this are all strong: Mary and John’s relations, the farmhands, the local schoolmaster who dislikes Mary for her appearance of being “Lady Bountiful”. The seasonal agricultural round has gone on time immemorial:
“Thus they had harvested at Anderby since those far off years when the Danes broke in across the headland and dyed with blood the trampled barley. Thus and thus had the workers passed, and the children waved their garlands following the last load home. Thus had Mary and other Mary Robsons before her welcomed the master of the harvest.”
However modern times and philosophies are at the door. A young socialist called David Rossitur is added to the equation and he talks about change, about unions, about wage increases and better working conditions. In one of those novelist quirks David is out in bad weather and is picked up by Mary in her horse and trap. He comes down with a fever and has to stay at the farm for a few days.
The work out of the differing views and the personal tensions take up the rest of the novel:
‘You stand for an ideal that is, thank Heaven, outworn. The new generation knocks at your door – a generation of men, independent, not patronized, enjoying their own rights, not the philanthropy of their exploiters, respecting themselves, not their so-called superiors. You can’t stop them, but they may stop you. You can’t shut them out, but they may shut you in.’
This is a good novel. It portrays a period of change and Holtby manages to enable the reader to have a level of sympathy for most of the characters. It does feel like a rehearsal for South Riding but it is also a strong novel in its own right.
April 28, 2022
I am giving this 3.5 stars. This was Winifred’s first work and it’s quite good for a first novel. The premise though that headstrong and capable Mary Robson (28 years old) would fall for one of the other characters in this story, David (24 years old), a wet-behind-the-ears socialist, was hard to believe. But the story did hold my attention pretty much throughout.
There were also snatches of humor. Several women are having tea and gossiping, and they start discussing somebody who just bought a new car, Mr. Toby. His wife is expecting a baby...
• “Did you know that Toby had bought a new car?” Mary asked.
• “He’d better by half have kept the money to pay his doctor’s bills. Molly tells me they weren’t paid for last time, and now, with the new one coming, I’m sure I don’t know how he’ll manage.” Sarah Bannister poked her knitting-needles sharply into the sock.
• “Really? Another? Really? I didn’t know,” murmured Anne.
• “You never do,” Louisa commented severely. “Will he drive it himself, Mary?”
• For a moment Mary wondered whether the inquiry related to the prospective infant or Toby; but Sarah answered for herself..... 😂 🤣
She makes reference to East Riding and North Riding located in Yorkshire, England. I don’t think she mentioned South Riding which was to be her final and most -acknowledged book, published posthumously in 1936. Sadly Winifred Holtby died of kidney disease at the age of 37.
Notes:
• The first chapter was titled ‘Full Suzerainty’ and I had to look up ‘suzerainty’... a relationship in which one state or other polity controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. Holtby uses the word to describe Mary’s control of her farm that she inherited from her father.
• I also had to look up ‘wold’, ‘a piece of high, open, uncultivated land or moor.’ That’s where the farm and its various related buildings sat on. Peat was dug up and replaced with soil and manure for the crops.
• She dedicated the book to her parents. “To David and Alice Holtby, is dedicated this imaginary story of imaginary events on an imaginary farm.” Fourteen years later when ‘South Riding’ was published, Winifred Holtby’s mother would not read it. It was semi-autobiographical, and her mother recognized a number of things in the book that related to her life and people she knew (https://www.theguardian.com/books/201... ).
• My Virago Modern Classic edition has a foreword by Mary Cadogan. Goodness gracious I just found out that Mary Cadogan died on September 29 (2014) which was ALSO the day Winifred died (29 September 1935) which is ALSO my birthday. I wonder what that means??? 😬 🙄 😯
Reviews (all very positive):
• https://www.sandradanby.com/book-revi...
• https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2017...
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2012/...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2011/...
• https://laurasmusings.wordpress.com/2...
• http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogs...
• https://rohanmaitzen.com/2012/03/01/w...
There were also snatches of humor. Several women are having tea and gossiping, and they start discussing somebody who just bought a new car, Mr. Toby. His wife is expecting a baby...
• “Did you know that Toby had bought a new car?” Mary asked.
• “He’d better by half have kept the money to pay his doctor’s bills. Molly tells me they weren’t paid for last time, and now, with the new one coming, I’m sure I don’t know how he’ll manage.” Sarah Bannister poked her knitting-needles sharply into the sock.
• “Really? Another? Really? I didn’t know,” murmured Anne.
• “You never do,” Louisa commented severely. “Will he drive it himself, Mary?”
• For a moment Mary wondered whether the inquiry related to the prospective infant or Toby; but Sarah answered for herself..... 😂 🤣
She makes reference to East Riding and North Riding located in Yorkshire, England. I don’t think she mentioned South Riding which was to be her final and most -acknowledged book, published posthumously in 1936. Sadly Winifred Holtby died of kidney disease at the age of 37.
Notes:
• The first chapter was titled ‘Full Suzerainty’ and I had to look up ‘suzerainty’... a relationship in which one state or other polity controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. Holtby uses the word to describe Mary’s control of her farm that she inherited from her father.
• I also had to look up ‘wold’, ‘a piece of high, open, uncultivated land or moor.’ That’s where the farm and its various related buildings sat on. Peat was dug up and replaced with soil and manure for the crops.
• She dedicated the book to her parents. “To David and Alice Holtby, is dedicated this imaginary story of imaginary events on an imaginary farm.” Fourteen years later when ‘South Riding’ was published, Winifred Holtby’s mother would not read it. It was semi-autobiographical, and her mother recognized a number of things in the book that related to her life and people she knew (https://www.theguardian.com/books/201... ).
• My Virago Modern Classic edition has a foreword by Mary Cadogan. Goodness gracious I just found out that Mary Cadogan died on September 29 (2014) which was ALSO the day Winifred died (29 September 1935) which is ALSO my birthday. I wonder what that means??? 😬 🙄 😯
Reviews (all very positive):
• https://www.sandradanby.com/book-revi...
• https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2017...
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2012/...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2011/...
• https://laurasmusings.wordpress.com/2...
• http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogs...
• https://rohanmaitzen.com/2012/03/01/w...
September 3, 2025
There is some wonderful writing in this, particularly in the development of characters, notably our protagonist Mary Robson, owner of Anderby Wold; her sister-in-law, Sarah Bannister; cousin-in-law, Ursula Robson, and the evil schoolmaster, Mr Coast; and some particularly good vernacular conversations in the Flying Fox between Shepherd Dawson, Mike O'Flynn and the curmudgeon Eli Waite. Here are Mary and Ursula in a memorable scene:
"Oh Mary, I wish you wouldn't talk that silly baby talk. It's such nonsense, brings them up to bad habits. I don't intend the kid to hear anything but good English. I read in a book that the misnaming of common objects definitely retards a child's mental development. Fancy calling feet 'tootsies' and dogs 'bow-wows' when the real words are so much easier."
Mary smiled a little.
The scene develops with Mrs Toby's arrival; she's had four children and is permittted to coo and cuddle baby Thomas as much as she likes, Ursula giving way to prior experience. And our narrator notes, that although Mary has held four dozen babies, helping with mothers in the village, she herself doesn't have any - of her own.
She (Mrs Toby) hovered over the cot, blinking and smiling, and absent-mindedly dropping one or two little parcels on the floor. Mary decided that those strange, clucking noises she made with her tongue were intended for the edification of Thomas, who ungratefully declined to be amused.
Ursula was politely attentive to the privileged absurdities of a mother of four.
"I just thought I might bring along a few of Lucy's flannels, and the cot cover I bought for Gladys. When you've had four like I've had, you'll know how these little things come in handy. And I just slipped one or two other little things into a parcel. Dear me, where it it?"
"How nice of you! That's ripping!"
Mary observed Ursula's occasional lapses from pure English with malicious relish. They compensated a little for her feeling of exclusion from the experience of the two mothers. She was not used to being out of it and disliked the sensation. Even little Mrs Toby assumed an air of faint patronage towards her uninitiation.
There is a great deal to admire and be amused by in this type of writing. It is polished and enjoyable and provides wonderful insights into the different characters. Just in that short extract we are given so much about Mary - her desires to be a caring person, but also her energies and philanthropic intentions for Anderby Wold; and as the scene continues her humorous observations of the people she knows. It's truly wonderful writing, and yet I hated reading the book.
From the beginning I identified Holtby's style as a combination of Dickens and Hardy - and my intuitive deductions about Hardy are completely fulfilled in chapter 18. But Hardy, apart from plot developments is also very much present in his endlessly waging battle between Fate, that invisible destiny laid out for each individual; and the more 'modern' idea of self-determination, or the belief that we have the power to control our lives through good decisions and by observing the moral laws etc etc. These theories weigh heavily on Holtby's plot. This of course is her first novel, and remarkable in many ways, written when she was in her early twenties.
I did start on the novel that critics declare her best, South Riding, and I stopped reading it for the same reasons I found this one hard to complete. And let's be clear here - reading Anderby Wold, felt as if my flesh was being flayed from my faschia, or to put it another way - my emotions were trampled by a road-roller; mangled by a mangle. It's that High-Victorian style of the hero will suffer and come out the other end, a broken 'man' or one who overcomes. In this story Mary is broken by the heavy hand of Fate in insidious and relentless steps. Towards the end, she is retreating into madness, there are passages where she is clearly dissociating from her surroundings, and from the present moment. Life has become too painful to contemplate.
And it is heart-breaking to share this story with her. She wonders at the end if everything is her fault and believes it to be so. And yet as the reader you can see where our author has laid the heavy-hand of coincidence and how everything appears to conspire against Mary. No, actually as a rational being I can clearly see that there were options. Mary does not need to take on this awful responsibility - but that is the Style favoured by the Victorian legacy.
Personally I don't like being manipulated into believing that there are no other possibilities. I don't like this emotional manipulation. The structure of the novel leads us to identify with Mary; we have access to her thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams; she is our hero, someone we like to admire and sympathise with, and then she is slowly crushed - and we along with her, see and feel this inexorable defeat.
I found the book hard to rate. So much of it is so enjoyable to read, her characters are so convincing, so real, so bitchy and so mean; and so full of their egotistical needs, just like real people; but I believe we do have the power to change how we perceive events and structures. Let me finish with this definitive paragraph from Holtby:
But Mary had placed herself in the ranks of the older generation who would have time leaden-footed. She cherished no longing to proceed. "Her restlesse and perpetuall desire for power after power" had taken her as far as she dared go.
She had John. She had Anderby.
Further progress could bring her no increase of power, only enforced abdication from the only dominion she could hold.
"Those alone are kings and queens who sit enthroned above their generation and rule circumstance."
The first quote is from the frontispiece of the novel a quote by Hobbes, using Leviathan, 1. And the second quote is when the young socialist, David Rossitur having just left Oxford, tries to teach Mary the ideas of Marx and Aristotle.
"You think you're a queen because you govern this village and your subjects seem to like you. The only real kings and queens are those who stand above their generation and rule circumstance."
At this point what I can say in favour of Holtby, is that her novel is set specifically in the year 1912/13, and thus she knows, having written and published it in 1923 - that all reforms and any changes from this era will be swept aside in the colossal losses and world-wide changes following the First World War.
"Oh Mary, I wish you wouldn't talk that silly baby talk. It's such nonsense, brings them up to bad habits. I don't intend the kid to hear anything but good English. I read in a book that the misnaming of common objects definitely retards a child's mental development. Fancy calling feet 'tootsies' and dogs 'bow-wows' when the real words are so much easier."
Mary smiled a little.
The scene develops with Mrs Toby's arrival; she's had four children and is permittted to coo and cuddle baby Thomas as much as she likes, Ursula giving way to prior experience. And our narrator notes, that although Mary has held four dozen babies, helping with mothers in the village, she herself doesn't have any - of her own.
She (Mrs Toby) hovered over the cot, blinking and smiling, and absent-mindedly dropping one or two little parcels on the floor. Mary decided that those strange, clucking noises she made with her tongue were intended for the edification of Thomas, who ungratefully declined to be amused.
Ursula was politely attentive to the privileged absurdities of a mother of four.
"I just thought I might bring along a few of Lucy's flannels, and the cot cover I bought for Gladys. When you've had four like I've had, you'll know how these little things come in handy. And I just slipped one or two other little things into a parcel. Dear me, where it it?"
"How nice of you! That's ripping!"
Mary observed Ursula's occasional lapses from pure English with malicious relish. They compensated a little for her feeling of exclusion from the experience of the two mothers. She was not used to being out of it and disliked the sensation. Even little Mrs Toby assumed an air of faint patronage towards her uninitiation.
There is a great deal to admire and be amused by in this type of writing. It is polished and enjoyable and provides wonderful insights into the different characters. Just in that short extract we are given so much about Mary - her desires to be a caring person, but also her energies and philanthropic intentions for Anderby Wold; and as the scene continues her humorous observations of the people she knows. It's truly wonderful writing, and yet I hated reading the book.
From the beginning I identified Holtby's style as a combination of Dickens and Hardy - and my intuitive deductions about Hardy are completely fulfilled in chapter 18. But Hardy, apart from plot developments is also very much present in his endlessly waging battle between Fate, that invisible destiny laid out for each individual; and the more 'modern' idea of self-determination, or the belief that we have the power to control our lives through good decisions and by observing the moral laws etc etc. These theories weigh heavily on Holtby's plot. This of course is her first novel, and remarkable in many ways, written when she was in her early twenties.
I did start on the novel that critics declare her best, South Riding, and I stopped reading it for the same reasons I found this one hard to complete. And let's be clear here - reading Anderby Wold, felt as if my flesh was being flayed from my faschia, or to put it another way - my emotions were trampled by a road-roller; mangled by a mangle. It's that High-Victorian style of the hero will suffer and come out the other end, a broken 'man' or one who overcomes. In this story Mary is broken by the heavy hand of Fate in insidious and relentless steps. Towards the end, she is retreating into madness, there are passages where she is clearly dissociating from her surroundings, and from the present moment. Life has become too painful to contemplate.
And it is heart-breaking to share this story with her. She wonders at the end if everything is her fault and believes it to be so. And yet as the reader you can see where our author has laid the heavy-hand of coincidence and how everything appears to conspire against Mary. No, actually as a rational being I can clearly see that there were options. Mary does not need to take on this awful responsibility - but that is the Style favoured by the Victorian legacy.
Personally I don't like being manipulated into believing that there are no other possibilities. I don't like this emotional manipulation. The structure of the novel leads us to identify with Mary; we have access to her thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams; she is our hero, someone we like to admire and sympathise with, and then she is slowly crushed - and we along with her, see and feel this inexorable defeat.
I found the book hard to rate. So much of it is so enjoyable to read, her characters are so convincing, so real, so bitchy and so mean; and so full of their egotistical needs, just like real people; but I believe we do have the power to change how we perceive events and structures. Let me finish with this definitive paragraph from Holtby:
But Mary had placed herself in the ranks of the older generation who would have time leaden-footed. She cherished no longing to proceed. "Her restlesse and perpetuall desire for power after power" had taken her as far as she dared go.
She had John. She had Anderby.
Further progress could bring her no increase of power, only enforced abdication from the only dominion she could hold.
"Those alone are kings and queens who sit enthroned above their generation and rule circumstance."
The first quote is from the frontispiece of the novel a quote by Hobbes, using Leviathan, 1. And the second quote is when the young socialist, David Rossitur having just left Oxford, tries to teach Mary the ideas of Marx and Aristotle.
"You think you're a queen because you govern this village and your subjects seem to like you. The only real kings and queens are those who stand above their generation and rule circumstance."
At this point what I can say in favour of Holtby, is that her novel is set specifically in the year 1912/13, and thus she knows, having written and published it in 1923 - that all reforms and any changes from this era will be swept aside in the colossal losses and world-wide changes following the First World War.
July 13, 2020
Mary is 28 years old, in a loveless marriage with a much older man whom she married to save her family farm. An outside agitator enters the village to try to unionize the farmers, and although the two are very different philosophically, she falls in love with his youth and vitality. Interesting to me that a novel written in 1923 with a setting in Yorkshire can reflect so many of the same issues we are dealing with today.
March 20, 2024
Winifred Holtby's first novel. Anderby Wold at the turn of the century is a small, northern village where lives are loved traditionally until a stranger comes along to show the farm labourers another way.
September 28, 2014
‘Anderby World’ was Winifred Holtby’s first novel, written when she was in her early twenties.
She would go on to write finer novels, but this was an excellent start; she wrote of the Yorkshire she knew, understanding the people, the history, the changes wrought by the Great War that she had lived through, and the way that the world was changing still.
The writing has such conviction, and, I think it would be fair to say, that this is a first novel sowing the seeds of greatness….
When her parents died Mary Robson married John, her steady, sensible, older cousin, so that she could keep the farm at Anderby Wold. It took them ten years to pay off the mortgage, and by then Mary was in full charge of her life and her world. She managed her farm, her home, and the village of Anderby. She was a strong and capable woman, and she was firm in her opinions.
She held her own in her social circle, but she was disliked by many. Sarah Bannister, John’s elder sister, who had raised him after their parents died, felt that Mary didn’t appreciate what John had done, leaving his own farm to help her save hers. Mr Coast, the village schoolmaster, was bitter that Mary wouldn’t accept his ideas for the school.
That made Mary vulnerable. The dullness of her marriage, her failure to produce a child, made her vulnerable. And, with debt gone and the farm secure, there was a space in her life, room for something more
It was then that she met David Rossitur, a red-haired, fiery, young idealist who preached socialism. She was captivated by his energy and his passion, she was intrigued by what he had to say. She loved their debates, but she was less happy when he began his work in the village. A colleague was summoned from Manchester, a union was formed a union, and soon Mary faced a choice between meeting demands that she felt were wholly unreasonable or having her farm-workers strike at the worst-possible time.
The story explores the conflict between traditional and progressive views wonderfully well; understanding both, and understanding that there is no black and white, that there are only shades of grey.
Above all it is a human story; a story of real, fallible, believable human beings, who all had good, solide reasons for being the people they were and doing the things they did.
Sarah was critical of Mary, but that came from her love for her brother, and when she was needed she would always be on their side. Mr Coast was critical, but he wanted the best for his school and his community. John was cautious and conservative, but he was content with his place in the world and he understood his wife much more than she realised.
Mary had so much potential, she could have done so much. But she only had her position at Anderby, and she so feared losing it …..
Winifred Holtby made this story so engaging, so readable, and I was captivated.
There are contrivances needed to make the story work, and there were moments when I might have wished for a little more subtlety, but the story did work, and I loved seeing the themes and ideas that she would explore in all of her novels threaded through this story so effectively.
'Anderby Wold' captures a particular place and time, a particular point in history very well.
And it was clear that Winifred Holtby cared, and that she understood.
She would go on to write finer novels, but this was an excellent start; she wrote of the Yorkshire she knew, understanding the people, the history, the changes wrought by the Great War that she had lived through, and the way that the world was changing still.
The writing has such conviction, and, I think it would be fair to say, that this is a first novel sowing the seeds of greatness….
When her parents died Mary Robson married John, her steady, sensible, older cousin, so that she could keep the farm at Anderby Wold. It took them ten years to pay off the mortgage, and by then Mary was in full charge of her life and her world. She managed her farm, her home, and the village of Anderby. She was a strong and capable woman, and she was firm in her opinions.
She held her own in her social circle, but she was disliked by many. Sarah Bannister, John’s elder sister, who had raised him after their parents died, felt that Mary didn’t appreciate what John had done, leaving his own farm to help her save hers. Mr Coast, the village schoolmaster, was bitter that Mary wouldn’t accept his ideas for the school.
That made Mary vulnerable. The dullness of her marriage, her failure to produce a child, made her vulnerable. And, with debt gone and the farm secure, there was a space in her life, room for something more
It was then that she met David Rossitur, a red-haired, fiery, young idealist who preached socialism. She was captivated by his energy and his passion, she was intrigued by what he had to say. She loved their debates, but she was less happy when he began his work in the village. A colleague was summoned from Manchester, a union was formed a union, and soon Mary faced a choice between meeting demands that she felt were wholly unreasonable or having her farm-workers strike at the worst-possible time.
The story explores the conflict between traditional and progressive views wonderfully well; understanding both, and understanding that there is no black and white, that there are only shades of grey.
Above all it is a human story; a story of real, fallible, believable human beings, who all had good, solide reasons for being the people they were and doing the things they did.
Sarah was critical of Mary, but that came from her love for her brother, and when she was needed she would always be on their side. Mr Coast was critical, but he wanted the best for his school and his community. John was cautious and conservative, but he was content with his place in the world and he understood his wife much more than she realised.
Mary had so much potential, she could have done so much. But she only had her position at Anderby, and she so feared losing it …..
Winifred Holtby made this story so engaging, so readable, and I was captivated.
There are contrivances needed to make the story work, and there were moments when I might have wished for a little more subtlety, but the story did work, and I loved seeing the themes and ideas that she would explore in all of her novels threaded through this story so effectively.
'Anderby Wold' captures a particular place and time, a particular point in history very well.
And it was clear that Winifred Holtby cared, and that she understood.
September 29, 2016
Despite being relatively popular in her day, Winifred Holtby shot to the limelight in the United Kingdom in recent years. This was due in part to Virago’s beautiful reprinted editions of several of her novels, and also because of the delightful BBC adaptation of her most famous book, South Riding. The Yorkshire-born author always writes with such astonishing clarity which allows the thoughts and feelings of her characters to rise to prominence as her stories progress. She writes about those situations which she has experience of, and the characters which feature in her novels seem all the more real because of it.
Anderby Wold takes place in the small village of Anderby in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The novel opens with the formidable character of Sarah Bannister who seems intent upon bossing her husband Tom around. Sarah has ‘too much respect for her own judgment to acknowledge an error’ in her character. Details like this which feature heavily throughout Holtby’s narrative set her writing apart from other novels. She is not too blatant or obvious with the details which she mentions, and her writing certainly benefits as a result.
The inhabitants of Anderby Wold, John and Mary Robson, are soon introduced. They are cousins who are currently trapped in a loveless marriage with one another. Sarah, John’s sister, and Tom are travelling to their farm for a celebratory ‘tea party’. The plot revolves around the Robson family, all of whom are used to rural life and are intent upon preserving the familial intermarrying which has occurred for generations. Mary is discontent with her lot in life until she chances upon the young, rebellious author David Rossiter, sixteen years her junior. The relationship between Mary and David is crafted wonderfully. They mock each other and bring a real sense of joviality and comradeship to the novel. A wonderful example of this is when David tells Mary: ‘as it is, every time you are nice to me, I have to recite little pieces of Marx to myself to convince me what an abomination you really are’.
The novel sparkles from the outset. The reader is in the company of a wonderful author who crafts such believable stories and peoples them with rich and wonderful characters. Despite using the third person perspective, Holtby is able to capture the most in-depth thoughts and intricacies of feelings of each of her characters. Her descriptions are sublime. She builds up marvellous pasts for her characters and uses these to build friction and tension between them. The characters in Anderby Wold are all diverse and range from self-important Sarah and clumsy maid Violet to quiet John and keen-to-please Mary. Mary is intent upon being her own person in the village and not becoming like the women around her who fill their lives with empty chatter about ‘maids, their sisters… [and] the price of wool for socks’. Sarah is obstinate and disapproving and is unable to see the positive side in any given situation, but she is a vivid character from the outset. Even without Holtby’s character descriptions, one can imagine each of the people she has created as realistically as if they had just passed them by in the street.
The dialects used throughout are written well. They are not over-exaggerated and do not detract from what is actually being said. The conversations between characters are often amusing and, by the same token, incredibly heartfelt. Holtby’s choice of vocabulary and the order in which she puts them are often surprising. Among the best examples of this are a character who ‘bowed severely’ and ‘Mrs Toby’s four unattractive little daughters possessed the sole talent of acquiring infectious diseases’.
As in South Riding, many characters feature in the novel, some of them briefly and some throughout. Similarly, the sense of community is incredibly strong, and clashes exist between the people and the County Council as well as those of differing classes and social standings. Like South Riding’s Sarah Burton, Anderby Wold’s main protagonist Mary is a teacher. Both novels are stylistically and thematically similar.
Many themes gain prominence throughout Anderby Wold. These include ageing, family, presuppositions, the building of relationships, life and death, community, the notion of outsiders, altering perceptions, class and social change. Social nuances, many of them rather silly, are included throughout to build up a realistic feel of the period in which the novel is set. Anderby Wold is a many-layered book which intrigues and informs in equal measure.
Anderby Wold was Holtby’s first novel and was published in 1923. There is nothing old-fashioned about it, however. The issues which she addresses are still of interest to the majority and the characters which she has fashioned so lovingly are fresh and continually intriguing. The novel is a must read.
Anderby Wold takes place in the small village of Anderby in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The novel opens with the formidable character of Sarah Bannister who seems intent upon bossing her husband Tom around. Sarah has ‘too much respect for her own judgment to acknowledge an error’ in her character. Details like this which feature heavily throughout Holtby’s narrative set her writing apart from other novels. She is not too blatant or obvious with the details which she mentions, and her writing certainly benefits as a result.
The inhabitants of Anderby Wold, John and Mary Robson, are soon introduced. They are cousins who are currently trapped in a loveless marriage with one another. Sarah, John’s sister, and Tom are travelling to their farm for a celebratory ‘tea party’. The plot revolves around the Robson family, all of whom are used to rural life and are intent upon preserving the familial intermarrying which has occurred for generations. Mary is discontent with her lot in life until she chances upon the young, rebellious author David Rossiter, sixteen years her junior. The relationship between Mary and David is crafted wonderfully. They mock each other and bring a real sense of joviality and comradeship to the novel. A wonderful example of this is when David tells Mary: ‘as it is, every time you are nice to me, I have to recite little pieces of Marx to myself to convince me what an abomination you really are’.
The novel sparkles from the outset. The reader is in the company of a wonderful author who crafts such believable stories and peoples them with rich and wonderful characters. Despite using the third person perspective, Holtby is able to capture the most in-depth thoughts and intricacies of feelings of each of her characters. Her descriptions are sublime. She builds up marvellous pasts for her characters and uses these to build friction and tension between them. The characters in Anderby Wold are all diverse and range from self-important Sarah and clumsy maid Violet to quiet John and keen-to-please Mary. Mary is intent upon being her own person in the village and not becoming like the women around her who fill their lives with empty chatter about ‘maids, their sisters… [and] the price of wool for socks’. Sarah is obstinate and disapproving and is unable to see the positive side in any given situation, but she is a vivid character from the outset. Even without Holtby’s character descriptions, one can imagine each of the people she has created as realistically as if they had just passed them by in the street.
The dialects used throughout are written well. They are not over-exaggerated and do not detract from what is actually being said. The conversations between characters are often amusing and, by the same token, incredibly heartfelt. Holtby’s choice of vocabulary and the order in which she puts them are often surprising. Among the best examples of this are a character who ‘bowed severely’ and ‘Mrs Toby’s four unattractive little daughters possessed the sole talent of acquiring infectious diseases’.
As in South Riding, many characters feature in the novel, some of them briefly and some throughout. Similarly, the sense of community is incredibly strong, and clashes exist between the people and the County Council as well as those of differing classes and social standings. Like South Riding’s Sarah Burton, Anderby Wold’s main protagonist Mary is a teacher. Both novels are stylistically and thematically similar.
Many themes gain prominence throughout Anderby Wold. These include ageing, family, presuppositions, the building of relationships, life and death, community, the notion of outsiders, altering perceptions, class and social change. Social nuances, many of them rather silly, are included throughout to build up a realistic feel of the period in which the novel is set. Anderby Wold is a many-layered book which intrigues and informs in equal measure.
Anderby Wold was Holtby’s first novel and was published in 1923. There is nothing old-fashioned about it, however. The issues which she addresses are still of interest to the majority and the characters which she has fashioned so lovingly are fresh and continually intriguing. The novel is a must read.
July 19, 2011
This novel originally published in 1923 was Winifred Holtby's first published novel. While it lacks the scope, drama and power of her final and most famous novel South Riding, there is still much to commend it. An agricultural community on the brink of great change, with the raise of unions and social change is brought faithfully to life. Mary Robson is brilliant portrayed old before her time farmers wife, who believes the villagers couldn't manage without her, and makes herself indispensable. Mary manages the farm, her much older husband deferring to many of her decisions - she's a strong, stubborn woman, yet the readers can see her vulnerability, as her way of life is threatened and her disappointments lead her to desperately try to keep the status quo. Mary's fascination with fiery radical David Rossitur seems doomed from the start, coming as they do from different worlds and different persepectives.
I enjoyed this early Winifred Holtby novel immensely, the writing is glorious, with some fabulous characterisation, which clearly shows the emerging brilliant writer she already was.
September 3, 2025
It was a pleasant and fluid read, and the storytelling style was light. I like this not-over-intellectual style.
An interesting story. The subject matter wasn't new (at least for today's readers), but it's worth exploring in this story as well.
The characters were a valuable asset; they were colorful, not black and white.
The surprising twist and ending were coherent and delivered with a compelling message.
An interesting story. The subject matter wasn't new (at least for today's readers), but it's worth exploring in this story as well.
The characters were a valuable asset; they were colorful, not black and white.
The surprising twist and ending were coherent and delivered with a compelling message.
March 30, 2024
Winifred Holtby’s debut novel tells the story of Mary Robson who has entered into a loveless marriage with her ineffectual (and much older) cousin John in order to save her beloved farm Anderby Wold. Mary is competent but inflexible, pouring all her time and effort into her farm and village events, bestowing her patronage on the villagers while at the same time making a few dangerous enemies like the petty and bitter schoolmaster Coast.
When Mary meets an educated young Socialist agitator, David Rossitur, her growing attraction to him must contend with her awareness that he represents the disruption of all the traditional ways she holds dear. Despite all her efforts, change is coming to Anderby and the consequences will be more profound than Mary realises.
Holtby creates well rounded characters and Mary is both admirable and flawed. The reader can pity her hard and lonely life while being irritated by her intransigence. The secondary characters are equally well drawn, from the embittered Coast to the farmworkers and Mary’s genteelly interfering relatives. There are also wonderful descriptions of the Yorkshire countryside and village events.
I did find it slightly unlikely that the robust and confident Mary would fall so deeply for the rather immature and physically unprepossessing David - while this serves to illustrate the depth of her loneliness, Holtby doesn’t entirely manage to convey what Mary finds so compelling in their brief and unromantic encounters. However, this is a minor quibble in a rather unusual and impressive first novel. 3.5* for me rounded up.
When Mary meets an educated young Socialist agitator, David Rossitur, her growing attraction to him must contend with her awareness that he represents the disruption of all the traditional ways she holds dear. Despite all her efforts, change is coming to Anderby and the consequences will be more profound than Mary realises.
Holtby creates well rounded characters and Mary is both admirable and flawed. The reader can pity her hard and lonely life while being irritated by her intransigence. The secondary characters are equally well drawn, from the embittered Coast to the farmworkers and Mary’s genteelly interfering relatives. There are also wonderful descriptions of the Yorkshire countryside and village events.
I did find it slightly unlikely that the robust and confident Mary would fall so deeply for the rather immature and physically unprepossessing David - while this serves to illustrate the depth of her loneliness, Holtby doesn’t entirely manage to convey what Mary finds so compelling in their brief and unromantic encounters. However, this is a minor quibble in a rather unusual and impressive first novel. 3.5* for me rounded up.
Read
July 5, 2011This is Winifred Holtby's first novel, written when she was in her twenties, published in 1923 and set in the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1912. I like to read books from the period I write about, and this was a joy to read. It's not as well known as her masterpiece, South Riding, but rehearses many of the themes that she will return to. Mary Robson married her stolid older cousin so as to keep her farm. The story begins when she is 28, has paid off the mortgage and feels very much in charge of her life and surroundings. In bursts David Rossitur, a red-haired, fiery, young idealist who preaches socialism, and Mary's world will never be the same again.
September 19, 2025
Most of the characters in Anderby Wold can be easily classified - Flighty Ursula, mean-spirited Sarah, impassive John, brutish Waite, bitter Mr Coast.
But what to think of the main character Mary Robson, the self-proclaimed Matriarch to the village of Anderby?
Despite her only being 28, she leads the life of a middle aged woman having concentrated all her efforts into paying off the mortgage for her inherited farm at Anderby Wold. She even married her cousin John, 10 years her elder in her quest to protect and maintain the farm. She is childless, something that bothers her. Maybe that is why she has thrown herself into philanthropical works in the village? Maybe her constant activity within the village helps her avoid her dissatisfaction with her own life?
I’m not at all sure that she has the nature of a born Philanthropist. To me, it reads that she enjoys the ‘adoration’ of what she refers to as ‘her village’. Some of her actions border on ‘busybody’. The villagers think she’s wonderful but have a mix of admiration and irritation for her. I have the feeling that it’s important to her to be very visibly seen doing good. A true Philanthropist doesn’t seek constant acknowledgement.
“The government of a kingdom was not always easy. Mary hated to be disliked. She loved to imagine herself the idolised champion of the poor and suffering, the serene mistress of bountiful acres, where the season is always harvest and the labourers worthy of their hire”
And then along comes David Rossitur, a young academic and author of a book written about Capitalist farming with a radical, progressive intention.
On his first meeting with Mary he states (with more good humour than the sentence implies)
“I’m out to smash your rotten social system into little bits”
Considering that they diametrically opposed in their political beliefs, Mary and David have a great interaction and their sparring is quite humorous. It’s quite clear that Mary is enjoying someone with many opinions - a direct contrast to her taciturn husband.
But as dissension is stirred up among the farm labourers, threatening a change that terrifies the farm owners such as Mary, she can’t stop thinking about David Rossitur.
Of course, it all ends very dramatically (no spoilers).
For whatever reason, I wasn’t particularly charitable when reading this book - it just didn’t illicit any real enthusiasm in me. I think this is why I personally need to read different genres and not stick with the same type of book one after another - otherwise they run the risk of feeling a bit same-y. I think that’s possibly what’s happened here.
This was Winifred Holtby’s first book and that’s perhaps why it feels like there’s something missing. As if she’s been a bit light-handed with the seasoning. I will read more of her work, but I’m hoping that the missing ingredient will be added.
But what to think of the main character Mary Robson, the self-proclaimed Matriarch to the village of Anderby?
Despite her only being 28, she leads the life of a middle aged woman having concentrated all her efforts into paying off the mortgage for her inherited farm at Anderby Wold. She even married her cousin John, 10 years her elder in her quest to protect and maintain the farm. She is childless, something that bothers her. Maybe that is why she has thrown herself into philanthropical works in the village? Maybe her constant activity within the village helps her avoid her dissatisfaction with her own life?
I’m not at all sure that she has the nature of a born Philanthropist. To me, it reads that she enjoys the ‘adoration’ of what she refers to as ‘her village’. Some of her actions border on ‘busybody’. The villagers think she’s wonderful but have a mix of admiration and irritation for her. I have the feeling that it’s important to her to be very visibly seen doing good. A true Philanthropist doesn’t seek constant acknowledgement.
“The government of a kingdom was not always easy. Mary hated to be disliked. She loved to imagine herself the idolised champion of the poor and suffering, the serene mistress of bountiful acres, where the season is always harvest and the labourers worthy of their hire”
And then along comes David Rossitur, a young academic and author of a book written about Capitalist farming with a radical, progressive intention.
On his first meeting with Mary he states (with more good humour than the sentence implies)
“I’m out to smash your rotten social system into little bits”
Considering that they diametrically opposed in their political beliefs, Mary and David have a great interaction and their sparring is quite humorous. It’s quite clear that Mary is enjoying someone with many opinions - a direct contrast to her taciturn husband.
But as dissension is stirred up among the farm labourers, threatening a change that terrifies the farm owners such as Mary, she can’t stop thinking about David Rossitur.
Of course, it all ends very dramatically (no spoilers).
For whatever reason, I wasn’t particularly charitable when reading this book - it just didn’t illicit any real enthusiasm in me. I think this is why I personally need to read different genres and not stick with the same type of book one after another - otherwise they run the risk of feeling a bit same-y. I think that’s possibly what’s happened here.
This was Winifred Holtby’s first book and that’s perhaps why it feels like there’s something missing. As if she’s been a bit light-handed with the seasoning. I will read more of her work, but I’m hoping that the missing ingredient will be added.
July 5, 2017
Along with many other readers, I first discovered Winifred Holtby through her connection with Vera Brittain, whose memoir – The Testament of Youth – is considered a classic for its depiction of the impact of the Great War on the British middle classes, particularly the women. Holtby and Brittain were at Oxford together; after graduating the pair shared a flat in London where they went on to pursue their respective literary careers. Anderby Wold was Holtby’s first novel – an absorbing story of traditional Yorkshire farming folk grappling with the challenges of financial survival in an environment poised on the brink of great social change. I enjoyed it a great deal, especially the portrayal of the novel’s central character, Mary Robson, the rather headstrong joint-owner of Anderby Wold farm, situated in the East Riding region of Yorkshire.
To read my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2017...
To read my review, please visit:
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2017...
September 19, 2020
I wanted to like this more than I did. I suppose as I’ve always enjoyed this writer I had expectations and ,possibly , my disappointment stemmed from this not working at the same level. I actually went back and read Mr Harrison’s Confessions alongside this to try and work out why I wasn’t reading it as I had previously read Cranford.
My conclusion was that this is just too bleak. I like the little details of rural village life but here there is a sense that lives of older people have no worth - they are described as dead trees waiting to be turned into firewood - and Mary disdains these retired chatterers. The inevitable socialist revolutionary enters . And leaves. Village events happen but , for me , there was little encouragement to identify with aspects of this life. It has a sense of a different ending being possible for a moment but then buried under the drive to show how much is lost if we destroy old ties and customs.
My conclusion was that this is just too bleak. I like the little details of rural village life but here there is a sense that lives of older people have no worth - they are described as dead trees waiting to be turned into firewood - and Mary disdains these retired chatterers. The inevitable socialist revolutionary enters . And leaves. Village events happen but , for me , there was little encouragement to identify with aspects of this life. It has a sense of a different ending being possible for a moment but then buried under the drive to show how much is lost if we destroy old ties and customs.
February 23, 2021
This is the first book by Ms Holtby that I have read. At first it seemed like I was entering a Thomas Hardy type of agricultural world, but the story soon becomes more modern as a young socialist (red-headed, no less!) attempts to start a union for agricultural laborers. Things go downhill from there.
I enjoyed the portrayal of stultifying village life with everyone knowing everyone else’s business, and gossiping about it. Initially the young, university-educated David Rossitur seemed like a breath of fresh air into this society that had stayed unchanged for generations. But when his social theories are expounded to the villagers, real-life likes, dislikes, grudges and malice come into play. Mary’s uninspiring marriage of convenience to her stolid older cousin is depressingly well portrayed. No wonder she is enamoured with the energetic young outsider.
I enjoyed this book. A good story well-told.
I enjoyed the portrayal of stultifying village life with everyone knowing everyone else’s business, and gossiping about it. Initially the young, university-educated David Rossitur seemed like a breath of fresh air into this society that had stayed unchanged for generations. But when his social theories are expounded to the villagers, real-life likes, dislikes, grudges and malice come into play. Mary’s uninspiring marriage of convenience to her stolid older cousin is depressingly well portrayed. No wonder she is enamoured with the energetic young outsider.
I enjoyed this book. A good story well-told.
April 29, 2025
This books talks of Capitalism, Labour power, Despotism, existed years ago in a countryside. It's so fascinating and realistic.
February 9, 2025
Not as good as South Riding, but still good.
January 6, 2019
Interesting book telling of the social and rural changes of the between-war years in the UK. It's a light story in some ways, but deals with a lot of heavy stuff. Although there are moments where she seems to be definately sending up one side or the other as a bit of a joke, overall I didn't feel like she came down on either side of the arguement, and the characters are flawed with no one coming out as a perfectionist.
It's set in East Yorkshire, in the Wolds (hilly beauty area for the uninitiated) in the little village of Anderby. The good old days of master and servant are reigning, where the family you're born in to says how much education you will recieve and what your employment stakes look like. The rich, in this case the families that own the farms, patronise their labourers and villages as if they were children; tending to them when they are ill, taking them little presents when ill, but also paying them a level of wages that will keep them and their children permanently in their place. In Anderby it is the Robsons, and in particular Mary Robson, who take on this role. Against this change is coming. Aside from mechanisation (that threshing machine at the end) the main change is social as socialism rises, unions are talked of, agitators come from Manchester, and people start to think perhaps they have the right to aspire to something better. David Rossitur, Cambridge academic young sprout who has written a book about the coming revolution, arrives to work up the villagers, and Mary, who ought to be the sworn enemy finds herself attracted to him.
Reading about Mary as a woman, I found her likable and I had sympathy for her. People were unkind to her, and with that tiresome pity and repulsion that goes towards women without children, which must have been even worse back in the day. There's an awful chapter in the book when her "friend" Ursula, who recently had a baby, is gossiping with all the other local rich women about the Robson's bad luck: "...I always feel inclined to excuse her a great deal, because she hasn't any children." (p 226). How patronising! Although Mary does plenty of patronising herself. But that is one awful attitude towards women in a nutshell. And Ursula's supposed to be modern and on Mary's side. But when she starts talking with: "Of course, I'm very fond of Mary, mind you, and I wouldn't say a word against her..." (P 226). Anyone who starts off with those words has nothing nice to say. But then Mary doesn't help herself. She is obsessed with the farm and her supposed duty, and gave up her own life for all these silly notions, marrying a man 20 years old than her when she was 18 as he would help to clear the mortgage on the farm. She interferes with children's education, refussing to sell a little field near the school for a playground simply because, and - as if she is the government - pulls a lad out of school permanently because he needs to get on working on the turnip field and he's just going to be a labourer anyway. Moments like that made my blood boil. And then when David Rossitur first comes to the village, drenched and getting a cold (consider he's 24 at this point and they've JUST met), she goes and rubs goosefat or whatever the hell it was on his chest as if he was her little boy. It's just... ugh.
Not that the revolution comes out perfect. David may complain that she patronises the villagers, but is he any better, rocking up and telling them they're repressed, they should demand higher wages, go on strike, tear down the system etc etc. At no point does anyone stop and ask the villagers, 'what would you like?'. Also, as a Cambridge lad and now a journalist, he spouts a lot enjoying the sound of his own voice, but he has no experience of actual life. Then there's Mr Coast, who wants social reform, wants the kids to have a better education and actually get to go all the way through the school system, but gets so wound up by his annoyance of Mrs Robson that he gives himself headaches, and you can end up wondering if his hate for her or desire for social change drives him most.
It's an interesting book and well worth the read. Not as good as South Riding, but given that this was her first book, I think all writers would like to think their work improves with time and practice.
It's set in East Yorkshire, in the Wolds (hilly beauty area for the uninitiated) in the little village of Anderby. The good old days of master and servant are reigning, where the family you're born in to says how much education you will recieve and what your employment stakes look like. The rich, in this case the families that own the farms, patronise their labourers and villages as if they were children; tending to them when they are ill, taking them little presents when ill, but also paying them a level of wages that will keep them and their children permanently in their place. In Anderby it is the Robsons, and in particular Mary Robson, who take on this role. Against this change is coming. Aside from mechanisation (that threshing machine at the end) the main change is social as socialism rises, unions are talked of, agitators come from Manchester, and people start to think perhaps they have the right to aspire to something better. David Rossitur, Cambridge academic young sprout who has written a book about the coming revolution, arrives to work up the villagers, and Mary, who ought to be the sworn enemy finds herself attracted to him.
Reading about Mary as a woman, I found her likable and I had sympathy for her. People were unkind to her, and with that tiresome pity and repulsion that goes towards women without children, which must have been even worse back in the day. There's an awful chapter in the book when her "friend" Ursula, who recently had a baby, is gossiping with all the other local rich women about the Robson's bad luck: "...I always feel inclined to excuse her a great deal, because she hasn't any children." (p 226). How patronising! Although Mary does plenty of patronising herself. But that is one awful attitude towards women in a nutshell. And Ursula's supposed to be modern and on Mary's side. But when she starts talking with: "Of course, I'm very fond of Mary, mind you, and I wouldn't say a word against her..." (P 226). Anyone who starts off with those words has nothing nice to say. But then Mary doesn't help herself. She is obsessed with the farm and her supposed duty, and gave up her own life for all these silly notions, marrying a man 20 years old than her when she was 18 as he would help to clear the mortgage on the farm. She interferes with children's education, refussing to sell a little field near the school for a playground simply because, and - as if she is the government - pulls a lad out of school permanently because he needs to get on working on the turnip field and he's just going to be a labourer anyway. Moments like that made my blood boil. And then when David Rossitur first comes to the village, drenched and getting a cold (consider he's 24 at this point and they've JUST met), she goes and rubs goosefat or whatever the hell it was on his chest as if he was her little boy. It's just... ugh.
Not that the revolution comes out perfect. David may complain that she patronises the villagers, but is he any better, rocking up and telling them they're repressed, they should demand higher wages, go on strike, tear down the system etc etc. At no point does anyone stop and ask the villagers, 'what would you like?'. Also, as a Cambridge lad and now a journalist, he spouts a lot enjoying the sound of his own voice, but he has no experience of actual life. Then there's Mr Coast, who wants social reform, wants the kids to have a better education and actually get to go all the way through the school system, but gets so wound up by his annoyance of Mrs Robson that he gives himself headaches, and you can end up wondering if his hate for her or desire for social change drives him most.
It's an interesting book and well worth the read. Not as good as South Riding, but given that this was her first book, I think all writers would like to think their work improves with time and practice.
June 6, 2012
After she got over being jealous that Winifred got published first, Vera Brittain called Anderby Wold an "intelligent and generous" novel. I agree with her. Holtby has a talent for seeing the good in every character, even those, like Coast the schoolmaster in this book and Snaith in South Riding, who are outwardly very unpleasant. She gets inside the heads of the upper as well as the lower classes, and the people in between, even if just for a paragraph or two. Having read South Riding first, it's clear that the seeds for that masterpiece were planted in Anderby Wold--the changing perspectives, the headstrong young woman at the center, the outsider who comes in and stirs things up, the future versus the past, disappointment, falling in love with somebody who stands for everything you're against on principle, slightly crotchety older woman who turns out to have a heart after all. There are a million little pieces stuffed into this not-particularly-long novel, which makes it feel a little disjointed. Because there are so many characters to get to know and understand, the central storyline feels a little rushed, and there just isn't enough of it. (Though I do think that's how it tends to work when you write an ensemble novel like this one; I felt the same way about certain plotlines in South Riding as well).
This was certainly enjoyable, but I'm glad Holtby kept writing so she could achieve South Riding. Who knows what heights she could have reached if she had lived longer?
This was certainly enjoyable, but I'm glad Holtby kept writing so she could achieve South Riding. Who knows what heights she could have reached if she had lived longer?
Read
May 23, 2022I assumed The Crowded Streets was Holtby's first book, as it was a "coming of age" sort of story, but now I know it was Anderby Wold, published in 1923 when Holtby was 25 years old. I gather Holtby was an ardent socialist for most of her life, but it's clear from her novels that her rural upbringing left her with a lifelong concern for agrarian settings and the tribulations of honest landowners who took an interest in the well-being of their employees.
This novel reminds me of stories like Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd and Gaskell's North and South, but it's not nearly as romantic (big or little "r"). I loved young Mary Robson and enjoyed every detail of her life managing the farm, as well as her dealings with employees and villagers. I also was intrigued by her interactions with young Socialist David Rossitur, but I never quite believed in their attraction to each other. Perhaps that's why the ending didn't pack the punch I'd hoped for.
All that said, I might read this one again. I really am quite obsessed with Winifred Holtby, and once I've caught up with her entire "catalog," I'll treat myself to another reading of her most exquisite novel, South Riding.
This novel reminds me of stories like Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd and Gaskell's North and South, but it's not nearly as romantic (big or little "r"). I loved young Mary Robson and enjoyed every detail of her life managing the farm, as well as her dealings with employees and villagers. I also was intrigued by her interactions with young Socialist David Rossitur, but I never quite believed in their attraction to each other. Perhaps that's why the ending didn't pack the punch I'd hoped for.
All that said, I might read this one again. I really am quite obsessed with Winifred Holtby, and once I've caught up with her entire "catalog," I'll treat myself to another reading of her most exquisite novel, South Riding.
April 22, 2016
Mary Robson appears to care only for paying off the mortgage on her land at Anderby Wold whilst her intellectually inferior husband, her senior by some years, arouses in her only irritation and disappointment. She's married him for convenience sake, not passion and the question is, is saving her land worth the price she pays in her personal life? And then a stranger enters her life, a radical and social reformer, a man called David Rossitur who not only challenges the way of life in the village of Anderby but also turns Mary's world upside down so that it's never the same again. Set just prior to the First World War, I was interested to read this book because it's Winifred Holtby's first novel and her later work, 'South Riding' South Riding is a favourite. I enjoyed it and found my sympathies engaged by the main character though I found some of the other characters two-dimensional - hardly surprisingly given it's her first work. The ending seemed a bit contrived, I thought.
December 29, 2023
Winifred Holtby wrote about life in rural England when the young 20th Century began to pick up steam and discover what it was all about, the clash between the old traditional ways and the modern machine driven ones, between women's passive Victorian wifely duty and the new era's stepping forward and claiming her own place. In Anderby Wold change must take place in the small village and surrounding farms, but some things and people refuse to budge until the outside world and tragedy force the issue. Then compromise is the only way the community can continue to function.
June 18, 2013
Holtby is my new obsession. She writes like a dream, creates resonant characters, and then sets them in lively motion. This, her first novel, deals with agrarian vs union issues just before WW1. Against this backdrop, a fateful romance plays out between the heroine, a journalist, and the Anderby Wold farm itself.
January 23, 2017
Obviously a winner in 1926, what with the UK General Strike, as it dwells on the ins and outs of socialism and the possibility of unionizing rural labour. The associated love story is more predictable.
July 30, 2020
Emotive look at repressed passions bubbling under in the turbulent years following World War One, as agrarian socialism and agrarian capitalism clash in the close-knit rural community of an East Riding village.
March 5, 2025
This is Winifred Holtby’s 1st novel written at age 24 and published in 1923. It is set in the rural farming community surrounding the town of Anderby in the East Riding area of Yorkshire, author Holtby’s home area.
THEMES
The novel’s major theme is the how to balance between past traditions that have worked for years and new progressive ideas that promote the betterment of all people. This theme is reflected in how the traditional farming community of Anderby deals with the onslaught of social change in early 20th Century England. Another reviewer noted some specific themes such as “the need to let go of the past, the rights of workers vs employers, the dynamics between the different social classes, and the tensions arising from family obligations.”
STORYTELLING
The story protagonist is Mary Robson, the strong-willed owner of a farm outside of Anderby known as Anderby Wold farm. A ‘wold’ is defined by Merriam-Webster’s as” a high plain or hilly area usually without woods.”
After her father died ten years earlier leaving a multitude of debts, the then 18 year-old Mary married her steady but unexciting 40ish cousin, John Robson, in order to secure a stable future for her family’s farm. When the story begins the couple, after ten years of hard work and much scrimping and saving, have made the final payment on the mortgage. The story concerns the future of Anderby Wold in the face of several dynamics.
1) The first is concern about John’s age and increasing health problems. This issue involves Mary’s relations with John’s relatives, especially his judgmental older sister Sarah Bannister, who question John’s continuing to work to sustain Mary’s farm when it is endangering his health. Mary insists on continuing the operation because it is her family’s farm. Mary makes all the major decisions concerning the farm, with mild-mannered John deferring to the better judgement of his wife in virtually all matters. There is also a sense that Mary has let John down by failing to produce a child, someone to carry on the family name and tradition.
2) A second, and more dramatic concern is the impact of radical organizers seeking to convince the farm workers to organize and strike against the farmers to get a better living wage. The organizing push is initiated by David Rossitur, a young enthusiastic socialist writer who arrives in town and encourages the local farm workers to join a labor union and strike for their rights.
3) A third dynamic involves Mary’s relations with Rossitur. Despite disagreeing with everything Mary and her class represent, Rossitur is captivated by Mary’s determination and spirited personality. Mary, for her part, is equally attracted to Rossitur, feeling trapped in a boring marriage.
4) A fourth dynamic is Mary’s relations with the townspeople. Mary is quite the civic oriented person and is busy with a variety of charitable work in the village. She organizes social events in aid of the local school, visits the sick and infirm, and offers support where it is needed. While most of the community appreciate Mary’s efforts, some, especially the local schoolteacher, Mr. Coast, resent her many efforts. Mary and the insecure, egotistical and progressive Coast clash when Mary opposes Coast getting a better position, tries to pull a boy out of school to do farm work and refuses to sell a piece of land to the County Council to build a school playground.
The story progresses in a seemingly natural manner and culminates in a final episode which, while centering on the unionization effort, also involves Mary’s relations with John’s family, the townspeople, Mr. Coast and with Rossiter along with Mary and John’s continued operation of Anderby Wold. The story well-paced and very dramatic. As a career labor lawyer, I found the details of the farm labor organizing effort especially interesting.
CHARACTERIZATION
Holtby paints realistic and complex characters in Rossiter, Coast and various townspeople. The only hollow character is Mary’s husband John and that may be because he is intended as more of a blank.
But the story is dominated by Mary who is another great complex Holtby heroine. She is strong-willed, proactive, often kind and considerate but at times exhibits more unlikeable traits. As her domineering judgmental sister-in-law Sarah accurately observes, Mary often does ignore John’s interests and does perform civic work partially to satisfy her need to make herself indispensable to the community of Anderby. She is also not always on the side of right. Her relations with Coast and the strikers highlight a stubborn, dogmatic and conservative streak that is probably counter to Holtby’s own attitudes. But these defects didn’t make me empathize with Mary any less but just made her character seem more human and believable.
CONCLUSION
While Holtby’s writing style is not as elegant as Maugham or descriptively poetic as Hardy, it is sufficient enough in both categories to be a challenging, engaging and smooth reading experience. Overall, I consider Holtby a great writer whose characterization and storytelling I admire and feel very comfortable with.
Holtby’s South Riding was my favorite novel of 2022. While this story is not quite up to that high standard, it was similar to South Riding in that it excelled in creating a community, describing the various factors and dynamics involved in the operation of that community, and portraying the impact of a new arrival on the community. It is really good for a debut novel and I enjoyed reading it very much. I give it a 4.3-star rating rounded to 4-stars.
THEMES
The novel’s major theme is the how to balance between past traditions that have worked for years and new progressive ideas that promote the betterment of all people. This theme is reflected in how the traditional farming community of Anderby deals with the onslaught of social change in early 20th Century England. Another reviewer noted some specific themes such as “the need to let go of the past, the rights of workers vs employers, the dynamics between the different social classes, and the tensions arising from family obligations.”
STORYTELLING
The story protagonist is Mary Robson, the strong-willed owner of a farm outside of Anderby known as Anderby Wold farm. A ‘wold’ is defined by Merriam-Webster’s as” a high plain or hilly area usually without woods.”
After her father died ten years earlier leaving a multitude of debts, the then 18 year-old Mary married her steady but unexciting 40ish cousin, John Robson, in order to secure a stable future for her family’s farm. When the story begins the couple, after ten years of hard work and much scrimping and saving, have made the final payment on the mortgage. The story concerns the future of Anderby Wold in the face of several dynamics.
1) The first is concern about John’s age and increasing health problems. This issue involves Mary’s relations with John’s relatives, especially his judgmental older sister Sarah Bannister, who question John’s continuing to work to sustain Mary’s farm when it is endangering his health. Mary insists on continuing the operation because it is her family’s farm. Mary makes all the major decisions concerning the farm, with mild-mannered John deferring to the better judgement of his wife in virtually all matters. There is also a sense that Mary has let John down by failing to produce a child, someone to carry on the family name and tradition.
2) A second, and more dramatic concern is the impact of radical organizers seeking to convince the farm workers to organize and strike against the farmers to get a better living wage. The organizing push is initiated by David Rossitur, a young enthusiastic socialist writer who arrives in town and encourages the local farm workers to join a labor union and strike for their rights.
3) A third dynamic involves Mary’s relations with Rossitur. Despite disagreeing with everything Mary and her class represent, Rossitur is captivated by Mary’s determination and spirited personality. Mary, for her part, is equally attracted to Rossitur, feeling trapped in a boring marriage.
4) A fourth dynamic is Mary’s relations with the townspeople. Mary is quite the civic oriented person and is busy with a variety of charitable work in the village. She organizes social events in aid of the local school, visits the sick and infirm, and offers support where it is needed. While most of the community appreciate Mary’s efforts, some, especially the local schoolteacher, Mr. Coast, resent her many efforts. Mary and the insecure, egotistical and progressive Coast clash when Mary opposes Coast getting a better position, tries to pull a boy out of school to do farm work and refuses to sell a piece of land to the County Council to build a school playground.
The story progresses in a seemingly natural manner and culminates in a final episode which, while centering on the unionization effort, also involves Mary’s relations with John’s family, the townspeople, Mr. Coast and with Rossiter along with Mary and John’s continued operation of Anderby Wold. The story well-paced and very dramatic. As a career labor lawyer, I found the details of the farm labor organizing effort especially interesting.
CHARACTERIZATION
Holtby paints realistic and complex characters in Rossiter, Coast and various townspeople. The only hollow character is Mary’s husband John and that may be because he is intended as more of a blank.
But the story is dominated by Mary who is another great complex Holtby heroine. She is strong-willed, proactive, often kind and considerate but at times exhibits more unlikeable traits. As her domineering judgmental sister-in-law Sarah accurately observes, Mary often does ignore John’s interests and does perform civic work partially to satisfy her need to make herself indispensable to the community of Anderby. She is also not always on the side of right. Her relations with Coast and the strikers highlight a stubborn, dogmatic and conservative streak that is probably counter to Holtby’s own attitudes. But these defects didn’t make me empathize with Mary any less but just made her character seem more human and believable.
CONCLUSION
While Holtby’s writing style is not as elegant as Maugham or descriptively poetic as Hardy, it is sufficient enough in both categories to be a challenging, engaging and smooth reading experience. Overall, I consider Holtby a great writer whose characterization and storytelling I admire and feel very comfortable with.
Holtby’s South Riding was my favorite novel of 2022. While this story is not quite up to that high standard, it was similar to South Riding in that it excelled in creating a community, describing the various factors and dynamics involved in the operation of that community, and portraying the impact of a new arrival on the community. It is really good for a debut novel and I enjoyed reading it very much. I give it a 4.3-star rating rounded to 4-stars.
December 17, 2022
Glad l
Persisted
Persisted
March 26, 2014
Described by Naomi Royde Smith as "notes for a masterpiece"
Winifred Holtby's first novel brought tentatively together
themes she would explore for the rest of her literary life -
conflicts between traditional and progressive, socialist and
conservative. Mary Robson is the strong heroine who is subconsciously
obsessed by power. The power that comes from being the village
organiser and playing lady bountiful to over-awed villagers who
have plenty to say about her behind her back ("she can't let the
wind blow without puffing on it" says the school teacher,
definitely not one of her adorers). The one thing that matters to
Mary is Wold Farm which comes to her as a mismanaged inheritance
but she is still prepared to marry a clumsy, hard working farmer,
John Robson, 20 years her senior but whose one aim in life is to
please Mary and at last clear the mortgage.
The village has a lot in common with Cranford as the men's
personalities are dominated by the strong women - there's authoritarian
Sarah, John's sister, now married to meek and mild Tom and Ursula
who is catty but can afford to be as she is young, stylish, a golf
champion and who is having a baby, something Mary has not been able
to accomplish!! Mary is a mass of contradictions - on the one hand
she has never forgiven dour schoolmaster Mr. Coast for striking a
child yet when he wishes to buy one of her fields to turn it into
a children's park she refuses. She puts a lot of people off by her
highhandedness.
Mr. Coast is probably the most three dimensional figure in the book
- bad tempered and unforgiving, his frustration at remaining a lowly
teacher at Anderby under Mary's capriciousness (he rightly blames
Mary for his lack of promotion) is shown in a sympathetic light.
He also gives a spot on assessment of David Rossitur as well.
Ursula visits with Mary and tries to get her to kick up her heels -
she leaves her fur draped over the chair, smokes profusely and hopes
to interest Mary in make-up, a more becoming hair style but even
though Mary wants to be shaken up she is stuck in too deep a rut.
Ursula has first hand experience of Mary's smugness - "anybody so
thoroughly pleased with themselves is bound to come a cropper"!!
And she does, sort of, when she goes looking for a book for her
husband's birthday and finds "The Salvation of Society" by David
Rossitur, an ardent young socialist who believes in rights for
workers, living wages, standard of comfort and private capitalists
- phrases that shake Mary out of her comfort zone. And when she
picks up a stranger in her cart out in a storm and it happens to
be Rossitur himself, this sends her off into a romantic fantasy land.
To me David is not a full bodied character - he spouts socialistic
rhetoric but he likes his creature comforts too much - a nice fire,
dreams of delicious meals at home. Product of a Tory father, cut off
without a shilling for his radical beliefs but somehow you get the
feeling they are just a "phase" he is going through and despotic,
kindly Mary is the real deal.
John has a stroke - Mary thinks it is because he saw her and David
kissing in the cornfield but she can never be sure and for once her
common sense starts to disintegrate. The farm workers are whipped up
to strike and Mary's tyrannical speech to the deputation brings ill
feeling for her in the village, but the strike is aborted before the
wage demands can be met with only Coast still seething with anger.
The ending sees Mary now resigned and defeated but willing, at long
last to put kindly, stolid John (who has shown some suprising back
bone and stood up to Mary in regards to some of the radical ideas in
Rossitur's book) before her own wants and needs.
For a first novel just simply terrific.
Winifred Holtby's first novel brought tentatively together
themes she would explore for the rest of her literary life -
conflicts between traditional and progressive, socialist and
conservative. Mary Robson is the strong heroine who is subconsciously
obsessed by power. The power that comes from being the village
organiser and playing lady bountiful to over-awed villagers who
have plenty to say about her behind her back ("she can't let the
wind blow without puffing on it" says the school teacher,
definitely not one of her adorers). The one thing that matters to
Mary is Wold Farm which comes to her as a mismanaged inheritance
but she is still prepared to marry a clumsy, hard working farmer,
John Robson, 20 years her senior but whose one aim in life is to
please Mary and at last clear the mortgage.
The village has a lot in common with Cranford as the men's
personalities are dominated by the strong women - there's authoritarian
Sarah, John's sister, now married to meek and mild Tom and Ursula
who is catty but can afford to be as she is young, stylish, a golf
champion and who is having a baby, something Mary has not been able
to accomplish!! Mary is a mass of contradictions - on the one hand
she has never forgiven dour schoolmaster Mr. Coast for striking a
child yet when he wishes to buy one of her fields to turn it into
a children's park she refuses. She puts a lot of people off by her
highhandedness.
Mr. Coast is probably the most three dimensional figure in the book
- bad tempered and unforgiving, his frustration at remaining a lowly
teacher at Anderby under Mary's capriciousness (he rightly blames
Mary for his lack of promotion) is shown in a sympathetic light.
He also gives a spot on assessment of David Rossitur as well.
Ursula visits with Mary and tries to get her to kick up her heels -
she leaves her fur draped over the chair, smokes profusely and hopes
to interest Mary in make-up, a more becoming hair style but even
though Mary wants to be shaken up she is stuck in too deep a rut.
Ursula has first hand experience of Mary's smugness - "anybody so
thoroughly pleased with themselves is bound to come a cropper"!!
And she does, sort of, when she goes looking for a book for her
husband's birthday and finds "The Salvation of Society" by David
Rossitur, an ardent young socialist who believes in rights for
workers, living wages, standard of comfort and private capitalists
- phrases that shake Mary out of her comfort zone. And when she
picks up a stranger in her cart out in a storm and it happens to
be Rossitur himself, this sends her off into a romantic fantasy land.
To me David is not a full bodied character - he spouts socialistic
rhetoric but he likes his creature comforts too much - a nice fire,
dreams of delicious meals at home. Product of a Tory father, cut off
without a shilling for his radical beliefs but somehow you get the
feeling they are just a "phase" he is going through and despotic,
kindly Mary is the real deal.
John has a stroke - Mary thinks it is because he saw her and David
kissing in the cornfield but she can never be sure and for once her
common sense starts to disintegrate. The farm workers are whipped up
to strike and Mary's tyrannical speech to the deputation brings ill
feeling for her in the village, but the strike is aborted before the
wage demands can be met with only Coast still seething with anger.
The ending sees Mary now resigned and defeated but willing, at long
last to put kindly, stolid John (who has shown some suprising back
bone and stood up to Mary in regards to some of the radical ideas in
Rossitur's book) before her own wants and needs.
For a first novel just simply terrific.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 22, 2017
Winifred Holtby was born seven miles from where I was born and I have always felt a connection with her, forged primarily by reading ‘South Riding’ as a teenager and reinforced by re-reading and two television series. And she also did what I wanted to do; she left the Yorkshire Wolds and became a writer. But until now, I am ashamed to say, I had not read her earlier novels. ‘Anderby Wold’ is her first; published in 1923 it is a portrayal of a Yorkshire Wolds village in the first years of the twentieth century. I was struck by the similarity to Jane Austen: both focus on the personalities, tensions, the pettiness, resentments and emotions of small communities, and both combine acute social observations with sharp humour.
The novel opens with a family party at the farm, Anderby Wold, as Mary Robson and John, her husband of ten years and also her cousin, are celebrating a decade of hard work and penny pinching to clear the mortgage on the farm they had inherited. We are introduced to Mary and the family from the viewpoint of John’s sister, the spiteful Sarah. If ever there was a negative first chapter that makes you think the story is going to be full of unlikeable characters, this is it. It is, perhaps, a sign of its times; I am not sure a novel would be published today with such an ill-feeling introduction. But do persist, this novel is worth reading. We are slowly introduced to each key character with their own viewpoint and take on their agricultural world, where hard toil, tough weather and difficult land unites – and separates – the community. Mary thinks of herself as a considerate benevolent mistress, she sits with sick people, visits the old, supports the school, and distributes gifts at Christmas. But she is unaware that some of the farm labourers resent what they see as her Mrs Bountiful role, a vision of her behaviour to which she is blind. She feels dissatisfaction with the minutiae of her life, dissatisfaction she pragmatically ignores. At a gathering of the village ladies, she listens to the gossip, ‘Mary shivered. They were as lifeless as the uprooted trees, carried from the wold side and laid in the back garden of the farm, awaiting destruction for firewood. Their talk was as meaningless as the rustle of dry leaves on brittle twigs.’
Into this fragile world where people speak bluntly and behaviour can be brusque, comes a writer from Manchester. He is researching the lot of the agricultural labourer with an eye on social change. When he comes into conflict with Mary, the beliefs and assumptions of both are challenged in an Austen-esque manner. As an outsider, David Rossitur is treated first with silence, then with suspicion. The innkeeper’s wife worries about his motivations, ‘Mrs Todd, being a personal of small imagination, had divided mankind into two classes, those who had designs on Victoria [her daughter], those who had designs on her Beer. Last night she had come to the regrettable conclusion that David had no true appreciation of Beer.’ A trade union for agricultural workers is formed, followed inevitably for a strike. At harvest time. Anderby Wold will be changed forever.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-revie...
The novel opens with a family party at the farm, Anderby Wold, as Mary Robson and John, her husband of ten years and also her cousin, are celebrating a decade of hard work and penny pinching to clear the mortgage on the farm they had inherited. We are introduced to Mary and the family from the viewpoint of John’s sister, the spiteful Sarah. If ever there was a negative first chapter that makes you think the story is going to be full of unlikeable characters, this is it. It is, perhaps, a sign of its times; I am not sure a novel would be published today with such an ill-feeling introduction. But do persist, this novel is worth reading. We are slowly introduced to each key character with their own viewpoint and take on their agricultural world, where hard toil, tough weather and difficult land unites – and separates – the community. Mary thinks of herself as a considerate benevolent mistress, she sits with sick people, visits the old, supports the school, and distributes gifts at Christmas. But she is unaware that some of the farm labourers resent what they see as her Mrs Bountiful role, a vision of her behaviour to which she is blind. She feels dissatisfaction with the minutiae of her life, dissatisfaction she pragmatically ignores. At a gathering of the village ladies, she listens to the gossip, ‘Mary shivered. They were as lifeless as the uprooted trees, carried from the wold side and laid in the back garden of the farm, awaiting destruction for firewood. Their talk was as meaningless as the rustle of dry leaves on brittle twigs.’
Into this fragile world where people speak bluntly and behaviour can be brusque, comes a writer from Manchester. He is researching the lot of the agricultural labourer with an eye on social change. When he comes into conflict with Mary, the beliefs and assumptions of both are challenged in an Austen-esque manner. As an outsider, David Rossitur is treated first with silence, then with suspicion. The innkeeper’s wife worries about his motivations, ‘Mrs Todd, being a personal of small imagination, had divided mankind into two classes, those who had designs on Victoria [her daughter], those who had designs on her Beer. Last night she had come to the regrettable conclusion that David had no true appreciation of Beer.’ A trade union for agricultural workers is formed, followed inevitably for a strike. At harvest time. Anderby Wold will be changed forever.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-revie...
June 21, 2011
Like South Riding, Anderby Wold is set in Yorkshire and deals with a community struggling with social change. Mary Robson is a young woman who has married her cousin in order to have the means to pay off the mortgage on her family farm and the skills to keep it running. Life in Anderby Wold is hard but quiet until David Rossitur, a young handsome social reformer, arrives and begins to shake things up, not least on Mary Robson’s farm.
Anderby Wold is nowhere near as polished and accomplished as South Riding but it is by no means a bad novel; Winifrd Holtby not at her best is still Winifred Holtby after all. Its focus is narrower, on a few key players rather than each individual in a community, but many of the themes which will be developed and expanded in her later work are present in their nuculaic form here. There is the same emphasis on the indivdual as part of the community and the differences between individual responsibility and social responsibility. It’sreally very difficult not to make this sound incredibly dull, but in fact it paints a fascinating picture of a community going through a time of quiet but important change.
One of the things that has impressed me about both Holtby novels that I’ve read so far is her ability to create characters who are neither inherently good nor inherently bad. Everyone has an opinion that they think is right and good: giving to the poor, workers’ rights and social equality. It’s difficult to disagree with any of them individually, but each character’s approach towards achieving what is right is somehow at odds with that of the others and therein lies the conflict. People do bad things, but noone is bad. There is no villain to boo; instead there is a complicated moral maze which Holtby refuses to guide the reader through. Instead she happily abandons you there, leaving you to find your own way out, and that for me was the main appeal of Anderby Wold.
Anderby Wold is nowhere near as polished and accomplished as South Riding but it is by no means a bad novel; Winifrd Holtby not at her best is still Winifred Holtby after all. Its focus is narrower, on a few key players rather than each individual in a community, but many of the themes which will be developed and expanded in her later work are present in their nuculaic form here. There is the same emphasis on the indivdual as part of the community and the differences between individual responsibility and social responsibility. It’sreally very difficult not to make this sound incredibly dull, but in fact it paints a fascinating picture of a community going through a time of quiet but important change.
One of the things that has impressed me about both Holtby novels that I’ve read so far is her ability to create characters who are neither inherently good nor inherently bad. Everyone has an opinion that they think is right and good: giving to the poor, workers’ rights and social equality. It’s difficult to disagree with any of them individually, but each character’s approach towards achieving what is right is somehow at odds with that of the others and therein lies the conflict. People do bad things, but noone is bad. There is no villain to boo; instead there is a complicated moral maze which Holtby refuses to guide the reader through. Instead she happily abandons you there, leaving you to find your own way out, and that for me was the main appeal of Anderby Wold.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews