But don't be fooled into thinking that her best-selling books are a soft touch because this author is not afraid to put her northern heroines 'through the mill.'

The stars of Jacobs' books always have to work hard for their happiness ... and along the way they often suffer unimaginable indignities, discrimination and privation.

Farewell to Lancashire is a gritty tale set during the hard days of Lancashire's Cotton Famine when the American Civil War of the early 1860s cut off supplies of cotton to the mill towns.

As the looms fell silent, many of the mills moved their workers onto half time and some simply stopped production all together.

In the midst of this terrible hardship are Edwin Blake and his four motherless daughters, the pride and joy of their book-loving but impractical father.

The eldest of the girls - all named after Greek goddesses - is Cassandra who must spend wisely what little money they have and watch over her younger siblings.

She finds solace in the arms of young widower Reece Gregory but he too struggles to find work and is seduced into leaving Lancashire for a new life in Australia.

He promises the heartbroken Cassandra that he will send for her when he is settled, but he discovers that the 'land of opportunity' is not quite what he had been led to believe.

And when Edwin is taken seriously ill, his daughters are left at the mercy of their bitter and childless aunt who harbours a serious and insane grudge against them.

Cassandra decides to tackle her irrational aunt but is kidnapped by two thugs and subjected to the full horrors of sexual violence while her sisters are forced to sail with a group of cotton lasses to the Swan River Colony in Australia.

Desperate Cassandra has just one chance to see her sisters again ... but there is a painful price to pay.

Full of the harsh realities of a woman's lot in Victorian society, this is a moving story with some memorable moments and endearing characters ... Jacobs at her inimitable best.

(Hodder&Stoughton, hardback, £19.99)