Haggard’s Inheritance

It is the first half of the nineteenth century, England, and the Haggard family are raising eyebrows at the highest levels of society. The infamous head of the family, John Haggard, has shot himself, leaving his soldier son Roger the new squire of Derleth Hall in Derbyshire. Meanwhile, his younger brother Johnnie languishes in gaol, awaiting execution for frame breaking. With a promise of marriage to the tinker’s daughter Meg Bold, and an exile for Johnnie to the family sugar plantation in the West Indies, it looks as though Roger is certainly capable of making bold decisions as the new head of the family.

But it is when he comes into the orbit of the Favering family, intent on luring him from the Tory to the Whig party, that things begin to spiral out of control for Roger Haggard. With Roger now in thrall to the beautiful but dangerous Mina Favering, and Johnnie to the equally dangerous poet of the day: Lord Byron, things are never simple for those with the name of Haggard. The second generation is divided between parliamentary society, Luddite unrest and the Barbados estate on which the family fortune depends, forcing Roger and Johnnie to decide whether inheritance obliges them to preserve or dismantle their father’s world.