The Widow Makers

The story is set in the quarrylands of North Wales amidst the Snowdonia Mountains, ancient castles, opulent Penrhyn Castle, grand mansions and the straggling cottages of a mountain community in the 19th century. A blend of fact and fiction, it traces the lives of two very different families.Following a pit disaster in Manchester, Joe Standish takes his wife Emily and tiny son Tommy to live in North Wales where he settles to the hard and dangerous existence as a quarryman. Home life for Emily and Joe is happy but for the small problem of Tommy's increasing wilfulness. As the boy grows, his cleverness comes to the fore and he catches the attention of the quarry owner, Bertram Bellamy, who offers to educate the boy with his own son. Growing into manhood, Tommy's life changes drastically, split between his working class family living in a simple cottage and the immensely rich benefactor in the grand mansion, Plas Mawr. Unaware of the destructive force hidden behind Tommy's charm and charisma, Bertram Bellamy accepts and encourages him and the destiny and the destruction of the Bellamy family is shaped.