The Stubble Field
Published by Orion in 1993hardback ISBN 1 85797 177 9
paperback ISBN 1 85797 423 9.
Sadly out of print, but copies available on Amazon.com
Set in the Victorian era, against the wide skies of the Fens, The Stubble Field is the story of Sarah Jane Winterday, a workhouse orphan who yearns to be a lady. While skivyving at Chevington House, she enjoys a rapturous summer liaison with a mysterious young man who gives her two love tokens – a golden apple and her son, Jason. Pregnant and dismissed from her job, Sarah Jane joins a band of navvies. This is the age of the railway. All over the country track is being laid, tunnels drilled and speculators are competing to make their fortunes. Her involvement in this world, first as a navvy's wife and later when Sarah Jane sets herself up in business, Makes her realise that her wish to be a lady, though a childish dream, is not as unattainable as she had thought'
'A wonderful blend of all the finest fiction ingredients; a spirited heroine, a grand passion; a consuming ambition; rags, riches – I couldn't put it down!' Marian Donaldson, World Books
It was also translated and published in France under three different imprints.
Brought out by BCA Book Club in 1994
Re-issued by Riverside Books in 2002, ISBN 1 904571 13 1