The Cinder Path

In the English countryside of the early 20th century, the working-class protagonist must deal with a cruel and tyrannical father and later with a romantic tangle and a problematic marriage. He must keep, as well, a dark secret which must stay hidden at all costs.

Later, he is taken into the British Army fighting on the Western Front of the First World War, where the shadows of his past pursue him and lead to a climax.

Charlie MacFell is the sixteen-year-old son of Edward MacFell, a cruel farm owner who punishes the farm's children by flogging them on a cinder path, causing their hands and knees to be grazed. Among MacFell's main targets is Ginger Slater, a workhouse boy who he whips for stealing a book to try and learn to read. Both MacFell and his neighbour, gentleman farmer Hal Chapman, have plans to marry Charlie to Chapman's elder daughter Victoria in the hope of one day uniting both their farms.

MacFell has been bedding big Polly Benton, the wife of a crippled former labourer, as payment for her family keeping their cottage and plans to use her teenage daughter, young Polly, to "experience" Charlie. Although attracted to her, Charlie intends to refuse. Polly's brother Arthur misunderstands, thinking MacFell plans to bed Polly himself, and tries to prevent it by setting up a rope that causes MacFell to fall from his horse, accidentally killing him. Charlie covers the matter up, making it look as though the fall was an accident. He inherits the farm and, in order to prevent his mother evicting the Bentons in revenge for MacFell's infidelity, takes over managing it himself.

Slater, the only other witness to MacFell's death, uses the knowledge to put pressure on Charlie and Arthur and ultimately blackmails Polly into marrying him. When Charlie is nineteen, Victoria's younger sister Nellie gets him drunk and convinces him to propose to her. He withdraws it on sobering up however and instead agrees to marry Victoria. The marriage soon falls apart; Victoria leaves the farm on inheriting a house in London and takes a lover, spreading stories that Charlie is impotent and their marriage was never consummated. Nellie also inherits a house in Gateshead and, with his mother's death, Charlie is left alone at the farm with his sister Betty.

When conscription begins into the First World War, the now twenty-four-year-old Charlie decides against declaring himself exempt and finds himself at a training camp with Slater as his sergeant, who takes delight in humiliating him. Charlie learns Victoria's lover is his company commander Major Smith, but before he can file for divorce, he is recommended for a commission. On learning Nellie has tried to commit suicide because he ignored her, he realises he loves her. Soon after, he is deployed to France. Shortly before leaving, he learns Arthur, who volunteered early, has lost both his legs and an arm.

During a push, Charlie ends up in charge of a small group of men including Slater. When his old enemy taunts him for buying a commission with his wife's whoredom, Charlie shoots him dead in a rage, but since Slater's rifle was moving towards him at the time, it is ruled self-defence, Slater's family are told he died bravely in battle and Charlie is commended for getting the rest of the men back safely. Towards the end of the war, Charlie suffers shrapnel injuries which leaves a large chunk lodged close to his heart: If it moves away from it, in can be removed, but it could move into it and kill him.

Charlie makes plans to divorce Victoria and marry Nellie, but Betty, seeing herself as being pushed aside after years of running the farm, tricks him into giving her permission to sell the farm's furniture and livestock and flees with the money. Nellie promises to sell her house to help rebuild and she and Charlie consummate their relationship, causing the shrapnel to move away from his heart and leaving him hopeful for the future.

In 1994, the novel was adapted into a three-part mini-series as part of ITV's series of adaptations of Catherine Cookson's novels. The adaptation starred Lloyd Owen as Charlie, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Victoria, Maria Miles as Nellie and Polly Adams as the girls' mother Florence. It was largely faithful to the source material, only removing a few minor characters and situations such as Charlie's encounter with a scrap merchant who gave him a lift, and adding extra scenes between Charlie and Nellie during their relationship (such as a last minute farewell at the train station before he is deployed) and a final confrontation between Charlie and Victoria, who is absent from the last third of the novel.