The Last Ballad

Reviews:
'A Moving Historical Saga.' Terry Hamilton, Manchester Evening News Jan 1992
'Fact and fiction weave seamlessly together to produce a story that makes a star out of Weardale.' Sharon Griffiths, Northern Echo 1991
'...what my father would have called a thumping good yarn.' Tom Ayre, Weardale Gazette 1991

Tough, independent and fiercely loyal to their own, the lead miners of Weardale are bitterly opposed to the Established Church, in the person of the Bishop of Durham, who owns the land and takes the profits from their dangerous labours. So when new curate Edward Selby takes up his duties in the dale, he is shown little kindness.
But to Jenny Emerson, handsome, adoring Edward is a vision from another world, far from the tragedy and hardship of her daily life. When, unexpectedly, he proposes to her, she can hardly believe her good fortune.
But the gulf between Weardale and Regency drawing rooms is not so easily bridged. Shunned by her friends - even her own brothers - patronised by Edward's haughty family, Jenny no longer has a place in either world. When the long hot summer of 1818 brings unemployment, hunger and unrest among the lead miners, the fuse is a lit for a violent confrontation, and Jenny must decide between her feelings for Edward and loyalty to her own.