The desert crop - Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust

Money was tight in rural Fellburn in the 1880s, and this perhaps explained why Hector Stewart, only two years after the death of his wife, announced to his children that he was to marry Moira Conelly, a wealthy distant relative from Ireland.

But Moira had not been entirely honest about her background or her finances, and had convinced herself she would be marrying into landed gentry, complete with a lifestyle to which she felt entitled. It was with surprise, therefore, that she first saw the run down farm that would be her new home . . .