1893, Salton, Lancashire. Jonathan Spencer is a cotton-spinner’s son born in the age of industrial expansion, growing up working in a cotton mill during a time of rapid social change.Victorian class boundaries are becoming blurred, and Jonathan seizes every opportunity available to him at a time when self-made men are on the rise.Edward Fraser, the kindly owner of Primrose Mill, encourages the precocious boy’s enthusiasm for business, even as he sees the same talents sadly lacking in his own son Richard, who has both the advantages and indolence of wealth that Edward has unwittingly given him.Jonathan and Richard Fraser become firm friends, in spite of the potential for rivalry as Jonathan begins a steady and hard-won rise towards prosperity, seeking to elevate himself from his working-class roots to prosperity.Their friendship and their futures are placed in a dangerous balance when the elegant, ambitious lady’s companion Nydia March arrives in Salton.She is attracted to Jonathan, but reserves her affections in case she can attract the far more wealthy and high-born Richard, thus planting the seeds of discontent in Jonathan’s simple heart.Jealousies begin to boil beneath the surface as Nydia carelessly plays with the hearts of her two admirers, and Jonathan’s own sweetheart Jenny suffers the consequences…As the years pass and the Spencer and Fraser families find their fates further intertwined, they find themselves facing the troubles of the early 1900s and the turmoil of war, even as they deal with the consequences of their classes.‘White Harvest’ is a moving historical saga of two families and their fortunes, encompassing the social upheaval of the two World Wars and the Age of Industry.'A memorable saga.' - Robert Foster, best-selling author of 'The Lunar Code'. Adelaide Q Roby’s ambition as a child was to ‘write a book with hard covers’ and during her childhood she wrote several plays featuring herself and her younger brothers in a series of adventures. Later one of her adult plays was on the point of being produced at a Liverpool theatre when war broke out and it was shelved. As well as ‘White Harvest’, she is the author of ‘The Pindars’, ‘Siren Song’ and ‘Sea Urchin’.
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