The Clouded Hills

Barforth #1

by Brenda Jagger

At sixteen Verity becomes sole heiress to a fortune founded on the wool mills of Yorkshire and realises for the first time that she is no more than a pawn in the games of ambitious men. Obedient to the conventions of the Victorian age, she accepts a marriage of convenience and cloaks her proud spirit in the silks and satins of a society hostess. But for Verity Barforth convention is not enough. When at last she falls in love it is not with her husband, and she becomes the centre of a powerful drama of infidelity, jealousy and revenge, played out against the magnificent landscapes of the Yorkshire moors and the brutal poverty of the mills.

‘A vast exciting tapestry of love, hate and death . . . held me to the end’ James Herriot

‘A touching and ultimately satisfying love story.’ Jilly Cooper

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Fiction, Historical, Victorian, Romance

590 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Brenda Jagger was born on 1936 in Yorkshire, England, UK, which was the setting for many of her books including her famous ‘Barforth’ family saga. The recurring central themes of her work are marriage, womanhood, class, identity, and money in the Victorian Era. Her work has been praised for its compelling plots and moving storylines as well as its exacting emotional descriptions. Her later novel A Song Twice Over won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 1986.

Married, she had three daughters. Worked in Paris and as a probation officer in the north of England. She passed away in 1986.

Reviews

[Kate Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brenda Jagger is one of the most underrated historical novelists out there. Her forte is Victorian England; she can put her finger exactly on the class struggle of the newly-rich industrialists, the proud aristocrats, and the ground-downpoor who are forced to coincide in the rough mill towns of the Industrial Revolution. Even more specifically she can put her finger on the desperate soul-searching of well-to-do Victorian girls who got married, were placed on pedestals, and wondered just what the hell they were supposed to do next. "Verity" is just about the best of Jagger's books, following a sixteen-year-old girl who is abruptly married off to her handsome and ambitious cousin Joel, and becomes the ideal wife and mother while tending the problems of various family members. Events such as the Luddite rebellion are woven in meticulously to Verity's personal life, but the book's real delight is the heroine's astute, unspoken observation of life around her. Rather than bemoan her situation, Verity is determined to get her way, and does so with such quiet effectiveness that no one notices that the town's most immaculate wife has more secrets than any of them. Not a book for everybody, but if you like Austen, Bronte, or Elizabeth Gaskell, you'll like anything written by Brenda Jagger.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omläsning av bok jag läste flera gånger som tonåring/ung vuxen. Den suger fortfarande in mig i en värld av rika företagare, godsägare, arbetare utan rättigheter och skildrar allt på ett ganska osentimentalt, lite distanserat sätt. Framför allt handlar det ändå om Barforthkvinnorna och de begränsningar som omger också de kvinnor som varken behöver svälta eller sända iväg sina barn att arbeta i fabrikerna. Möjligen hade jag velat se mer reflektioner över det sistnämnda, men dels ligger fokus ändå lite mer på kvinnorollen, dels pågår det ändå en del mellan raderna och framför allt känns det ändå rätt realistiskt att en företagarsläkt på den tiden inte driver frågan om arbetares rättigheter. I grund och botten en kärleksroman, men ändå så mycket mer.

[Lissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no words 😭 This book is a masterpiece. No one writes like Brenda Jagger. This will now be on my list of best books I have ever read!

[Luminita Szen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book, Brenda Jagger writes absolutely wonderful. The characters are complex and the topics depicted profound and thought provoking. The social problems of the time are well portrayed.Women have a tough life, under the comand and whim of men, their thoughts, wishes and aspirations uncounting. The workers in the mills have an even tougher,harrowing life.
I loved one paragraph most, were Verity expresses to her husband her expectations in marriage.I totaly agree with her perspective.
Highly recommend! This is a trilogy so the saga continues!

[Debee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the early to mid 1800's this book catalogues the social, economical and political changes in a Yorkshire mill town told through the eyes of Verity, an heiress at the young age of 16 through to adulthood. I was engrossed by this story from beginning to end and was as interested in the changes through the industrial and political revolutions that were taking place as in the more private life of Verity and her family and friends with their ambitions, love, jealousies and infidelities against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Britain. The plight of woman in this era, who really had no power, and were trapped by their fathers, husbands or brothers and society in general is brilliantly portrayed and the growth of Verity from a young nervous bride to an independent woman is fascinating. Verity's speech on what she wants from a husband, partner, lover is one of the best paragraphs on marriage I have read. I will definitely be reading the next two books in the Barforth trilogy.

[☆Ruth☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second time of reading and still very enjoyable. Brenda Jagger's writing style is delicate and almost poetic, which provides a strong contrast to the brutal, industrial, Victorian background of its setting.
On one level a story of passion and romance but told with equal sensitivity to the grinding poverty, political upheaval and social turmoil of the era.

[Sonia Gomes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book giving you an insight into the Cloth mills in England, the ups and downs of the Industrial age in England.
It is really a good book that details all about the Industrial Revolution particularly the textile industry, the effects of machines on the workers in the mills.

[Christine Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent historical novel, found it in a 2nd hand bookstore, one of the ‘sweeping sagas’ that were popular in the 80s. A real page turner, would have given it 5 stars only I felt the writer chickened out at the conclusion and the end was weaker than it could have been. Still a great read, though.

[Sandra Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome book set in my home town

[SaraB · Rating 2 out of 5]

Virgin heroine gets cheated on, cheats on, fights and reconciles. Urgh.

[Catty-cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still amazing 20 years later.

[J. Merrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book and its sequels more than 20 times!

[Verity · Rating 2 out of 5]

If it hadn't been for the CollegeStudent's 2009 Challenge, I probably would not have read this book for another 10+ years, when I might have chanced upon it in a small used bookstore in a no-name town and bought it because of the title. Having the same obscure name as the main character was a little disconcerting at first, though finally nice to know the feeling of reading one's own name as a character, and more so when it seemed as though our personalities were the same.

Thankfully, that is where the similarities end. Shelved under fiction, since I wouldn't call it literature and wasn't light in subject enough to be diverting, it is a story that seems to slowly drag you under it's spell of middle-class families in northern England's industrial towns at the turn of the Victorian era, while at the same time never really saying or doing anything (much like this review). An easy read that leaves you nearly as distempered as Joel Barforth: needing to know what will happen to them.

Up to the last 10 pages, I thought I would be left wondering about the characters that I would need to read the other two books in the series to find out...much to my pocketbook's delight, I am contempt to let them remain as they ended.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have rated it so much higher if there had not been so many typos; so many that they distracted from the story line and I had to go back and read many sentences / paragraphs at least twice to understand what was happening.

Is this the price we pay for self-publishing? Please please authors get someone to at least proof read your books before publishing them!

[Joann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guilty pleasures

[Wynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first in a series about life in manufacturing England and the rising merchant class.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

[barbara brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard work

Had to stick at it but did not really enjoy this book and will not be buying follow up books

[melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book amazing story telling

Amazing story telling, about women and in a time when we had no voice or power, or did we ?