Jericho Years

Jericho Farm, high in the Pennines, has been in the Hemingway family for generations. Although life on the farm was hard, the place has a rugged compulsion for those who lived and worked there. But now James Hemingway was thinking of breaking with tradition and selling up. With his wife tragically dead, David, his son making a separate career as an artist, Ellen, a stranger, a withdrawn and troubled girl, there seemed little point in staying on at Jericho. 

Then David the beloved and only son was struck by a fatal illness and with Lisa, the girl he wanted to marry, came back to Jericho, to the house and land that he loved. As the new family coped with the fresh tragedy and began to try and weld together once more, so an entirely unexpected and unconventional relationship exploded into their lives, one that offered hope to James, to Lisa and to Jericho Farm.

‘‘Hawksmoor’ is the fictional name for the industrial Yorkshire town of Huddersfield where I grew up,’ says the author Aileen Armitage.  ‘I was captivated by its history and the curious fact that the town was owned by one family right up until the 1920’s. My dad used to tell me tales as we walked on the surrounding moors about our family’s climb from rags to riches and their subsequent decline. Can I help it if my passion for the West Riding and its history shows a story of love and hatred, tragedy and triumph?’