The Land of Green Ginger (1927) by Winifred Holtby. This is the story of Joanna Leigh, a wife and mother, whose is challenged by a struggling farm, a chronically ill husband, and village gossip. She struggles valiantly and copes by imagining fictional characters and the exotic places where she dreams of visiting. There is a secondary story of Paul Szermai, a forester from Hungary with a tragic past, who lodges with Joanna and her husband. The characterization is very good, but I felt that Joanna was too passive and accommodating and wasn’t compelling enough for a central character. I rated it 2/5. South Riding is the author’s masterpiece, and I would recommend it over this earlier work.









