[1] The novel is the first of a seven-book saga about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business elite across three generations.

The book starts with an elderly Emma Harte flying to New York with her personal assistant and favourite grandchild, Paula.

She has trained Paula to be her successor, both as the head of Harte Stores and as representative of her mother, Daisy Amory, at Sitex.

Devastated initially, Emma isn't surprised but changes her will, choosing to leave her business interests to her grandchildren instead.

As parlour maid, Emma sees a lot of the Fairley family and becomes friends with the younger son, Edwin.

Emma also meets Blackie O'Neill, a wandering Irish navvy who has been hired to do some work at Fairley Hall, and they become fast friends.

Wanting to protect herself and her child from gossip, Emma tells her landlady and new friends she is married to Winston, a sailor currently away at sea.

As Emma's baby's birth approaches, Blackie arranges for her to meet his friend Laura Spencer in the village of Armley.

Joe is killed in the Battle of the Somme and Laura, now married to Blackie, dies giving birth to a son, Bryan.

Emma, hurt and disappointed, especially when she discovers he and his wife have a son, turns to an acquaintance for consolation and marries again.

Her older children are furious, but each accepts a one million pound trust that Emma offers as a bribe to not cause trouble.

He is Edwin's grandson, and Emma tells him Edwina is his aunt, but he had guessed, seeing her resemblance to his great-grandmother, Adele.

He also asked for Emma's forgiveness, as Jim revealed Edwin had never recovered from the guilt he suffered for abandoning her and their child.

The debut UK screening of this series, in January 1985, gave Channel 4 its highest ever audience figures, with 13.8 million viewers.

Hold the Dream again features Deborah Kerr as Emma Harte but now stars Jenny Seagrove as her granddaughter, Paula (replacing Miranda Richardson, who had played her in the first mini-series).

To Be the Best stars Lindsay Wagner as Paula, running the Harte empire ten years after Emma's death.