Ranging from the 1880s up to the years after World War II, Hardacre is the story of the rise of a great family and of England herself during the most dramatic years of change and fortune in her long history.Sam Hardacre began his rise to wealth and power on the grim quays of Englands fishing ports working as a herring gutter. Toiling in this crowded, fetid atmosphere each day from dawn until dusk, Sam by his efforts provided his family with a life of grinding, honest poverty-the only luxuries being an occasional jug of ale for him and his wife, Mary, and a tin of fresh milk for his two young sons. This cycle of misery continued without relief year in and year out until a chance meeting at a racecourse ignites a flash of Sam"s latent business acumen, showing him the way to prosperity-eventually to wealth and the stewardship of a great commercial empire. And so the Hardacres begin their climb up England"s economic and social ladder. Their frequent and stormy encounters with the "closed" world of the English aristocracy in the last glow of its golden age highlight the trappings and mores of a society sliding toward the disasters of the Great War. The hangover from the Victorian age of the arrogance and uncertainty of the nouveau riche stands in sharp contrast to Sam and Mary"s unfailing humanity and compassion. Although they do acquire all of the outward signs of success and hard-won acceptance, they never forget their own roots or lose their keen sensitivity to the daily hardships of life for working people in England.