‘Then suddenly we find ourselves left alone in a dull crowded street with no one caring and our lives unneeded, and all the fine things we meant to do, like toys that a child had laid aside.’

In the stifling confines of Edwardian Yorkshire, Muriel Hammond is waiting for her life to begin. Marriage, respectability, duty – these are all part of the script – but just as she believes that ‘men do as they like’ while women ‘wait to see what they will do’, she dreams of a life beyond those boundaries. As war transforms the village of Marshington and friends slot into their expected roles, Muriel needs courage to reframe her sad fate as a ‘surplus woman’ and look towards her own independent future. As a forerunner of protagonist Sarah Burton in Holtby’s celebrated South Riding, she embodies the wit and quiet rebellion of a talented author committed to social reform.