A Dinner Of Herbs

A Dinner of Herbs is the last offering from Catherine Cookson. A tale of lust, hate, and murder. It follows the lives of three friends, Roddy Greenbank (Jonathon Kerrigan) a artistic orphan who is raised by his dead fathers long-time friend Kate Makepeace (Billie Whitelaw), Hal Roystan (Tom Goodman Hill) a tough mill worker who is also orphaned after his father is murdered, and Mary-Ellen Lee a pretty housemaid who has openly yearned for Roddy since the day they met When it emerges that the same man killed both Roddy and Hals father, Roddy sets about becoming an artist and leaves his home village of Langley, leaving Mary-Ellen pregnant and Kate ashamed of the boy she raised as her own. Further heartache occurs when Hal is nearly murdered by his fathers killers daughter and events spurns Mary-Ellen to realising that she cannot lose the man she has grown to love. The story picks up twenty five years later Hal and Mary-Ellen have made a success out of a farming life and Kate (Debra Stephenson) Roddy and Mary-Ellen’s daughter is beautiful and kind and set for marriage until she’s jilted on the big day by the groom. She soon meets Ben Hamilton (Joseph May) a reclusive and handsome American millionaire who has a painful past to hide. Kate soon embarks upon a passionate affair with him and believes she has found the perfect man. But when Ben reveals his true identity to Kate, their endless love is put to the test in the most trying of circumstances.