The stubble field

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 was but a childish ambition; becoming a woman is what really counts. Reflecting the energy and pioneering spirit of the eighteen fifties, which brings the glorious life, this story is eliminated throughout by the Golden Apple-a precious symbol of the human heart.