Dirty Butter For Servants — Joan Fleming

It is 1833. William IV and the country stand upon the edge of the greatest changes ever known, at the end of old rural England. Mr Hobshaw, a retired diplomat and squire of Underscar in the Yorkshire dales, has suddenly remarried; his new wife has a strong head for business but is also a miser. Mrs Hobshaw has four ageing captive daughters, and her servants are slaves. The atmosphere is soon too much for her husband, who leaves the house to reside across the stable yard with his groom, Sheffield. And it is from there that this gothic drama unfolds ... 'You will read on compulsively' Sunday Times