The Gallows Pole (2017)

The Gallows Pole is a historical novel set in 18th century Yorkshire. It focuses on the true story of the Cragg Vale Coiners, a ragtag bunch of local men under the leadership of '“King” David Hartley who scrape a living together by “clipping” coins to melt down and produce new forgeries. The book is set on the cusp of industrialisation, in the dying days of an era when a charismatic man could hold effective dominion over a valley, in a relatively closed community maintaining a form of isolation from the rules and laws of the land. The exciseman William Deighton enters as an outsider, vowing to take down Hartley and his hugely successful enterprise. As the web closes in on the Coiners, in the background cotton mills are rising, turnpikes slicing their way through the countryside, and a way of life being lost to history.