As Joe Remington's wife came to Fell Rise, he was already afraid she might not settle well into the big house on the hill just outside Fellburn This had always been his home but for Elaine - Elly, whom he had married within three months of their meeting in London - it was almost another country with manners and customs she was not keen to accept For now, however, Joe had other worries It was May 1926 and at midnight a General Strike would begin, its effects to be felt nowhere more acutely than in the industrial North-East