ABSTRACT
Many modern readers would probably echo the reservations expressed by Sylvia Lynd as she reviewed a novel on this seemingly unpromising theme for Harper's Bazaar in 1936. The novel under discussion was South Riding, the final and most significant literary work produced by journalist, author and political campaigner, Winifred Holtby. In the early stages of planning the novel, Holtby had envisaged a book about Yorkshire and the effects of the agricultural slump in the East Riding. Holtby goes on to demonstrate that the real business and drama of local government lies not in the council meetings, but in the work of committees. Little of Holtby's complex picture of morality and motivation survived the translation of the questions to the cinema screen. In the film version, the relationship between personal ethics and public service is starkly delineated: honest motives result in positive social policy for the interest of the community, the good characters triumph, and corruption is overthrown.
