The Warden

Inspired by a stroll around Salisbury Cathedral, The Warden centres on Reverend Harding and his youngest daughter Eleanor. It tells, with gentle humour and subtle satire, of the moral dilemma he faces when accused of living on the funds that should be distributed to the almshouse to which he has been appointed warden. 

One of his chiefcritics is John Bold, a zealous, passionate young man who makes the injustice, as he sees it, known to the press. Eleanor is in love with Bold and he returns her affection but she would sacrifice him to save her father from shame and mortification. Urged to fight the charge by his son-in-law Dr Grantly, Harding wants to act courageously but in a way that will not alienate Eleanor or her lover. 

The first of the much-loved Chronicies of Barsetshire, The Warden is a sympathetic account of a man struggling to do his best when society proves unbending.