SOLVED. Adult fiction: Victorian era or thereabouts. Two families who are archenemies live next to each other separated by a hedge. [s]

[Rebecca]

The main character is a girl, whose father is dead, mother (lady Catham- could be wrong on the name-) is ailing, and likes to take sherry. Girl's younger brother has a mental disability. They go to church. Make a living by selling sheep wool, it's one of the main reasons for the enemity with their neighbors due to competition, the protagonist family accuses the other of once poisoning their sheep. A boy from the archenemy family is attracted to the Catham girl and she is warming up to it.


I read the book in 2014 but didn't finish. I forgot the title and have been looking for it since.

[Mai]

This one came up searching online and from the reviews (on Amazon and Goodreads) it seems to match your description 100% so hopefully this is it! Wild Heather by Catherine Palmer. It was published in 2003.

(You were very close, it is Lady Chatham!)

[Rebecca]

Mai wrote: "This one came up searching online and from the reviews (on Amazon and Goodreads) it seems to match your description 100% so hopefully this is it! Wild Heather by [author:Catherine Pa..."
OMG! Wild Heather, that's it! That's the book! Thank you so much! Oh the torture I have undergone the last six years trying to find it! Now I can sleep peacefully, and then get the book tomorrow and finish reading it. And thanks to this channel and everyone in it.