Winston Graham’s series of novels set in Cornwall follows the lives of the Poldark family and their friends, neighbours, rivals and enemies. Life in Cornwall is governed by the sea and by the fortunes of the tin and copper mines that provide work for the local community.

The Miller’s Dance finds Ross Poldark now 52 years old and still happily married to Demelza, who is ten years younger than him. Their eldest son Jeremy is approaching 21 and their eldest daughter Clowance is 17, both of them navigating the changeable weather of first love. The Poldark family is completed by young Isabella-Rose although neither Ross nor Demelza will ever forget the grief of losing their first born, Julia, before her third birthday.

A series of courtships begins their complicated dance, some fuelled by lust and others by love, money or ambition. All this takes place against a backdrop of England’s continuing military campaign against Napoleon’s army in Spain and Portugal. The damage that war has done to the nation’s commerce and those who rely on it gives rise to political tensions which are played out in complex schemes of power and influence amongst the governing classes in London. A world which seems so far away from the pressing concerns of Cornish life and which nevertheless beckons Ross to attend to his duties in parliament as an MP.

The story told here (Book 9 in the famous series of novels) rejoins the characters in 1812 – about ten years after the point where BBC television’s hugely popular series concluded. This is a chance to return to Cornwall and the passions of the Poldarks and at the same time to reflect on what marriage and courtship are really about and whether love can ever hope to conquer all.

Author : Winston Graham
Read by Richard Goulding
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4 Show less