Kate Long, a native of Blackrod, near Chorley, was catapulted from life as as just another working mum into a number one best-selling author with her debut novel The Bad Mother's Handbook.

The book was a runaway success and was turned into an ITV drama starring the multi-talented Catherine Tate.

Five years later and the former English teacher has taken an exciting new direction in The Daughter Game which has all the wry observations and warmth of her Bad Mother trilogy but tackles new questions about how we treat the people we claim to love.

Anna's personal life is in crisis. Her marriage to Jamie is struggling and the disastrous affair she began as consolation has now become a millstone around her neck.

The only place where she feels really secure is the safe and ordered world of the classroom where, as a teacher, she happily follows the rules, works hard and gets results.

Then the beautiful Kali arrives in her English group, a girl who is bright, unsettling, vulnerable and in need of guidance from an older woman.

So what could be more natural for a caring teacher than to show concern for a troubled pupil? Anna starts to believe that their friendship can save them both.

But when that friendship begins to grow into something much more intense, Anna finds her professional and domestic lives caught up together in a crazy spiral that threatens to destroy everyone she ever cared about.

Long's experience as a teacher has given her the perfect insight into the potential pitfalls of the modern teaching profession in which a fine line must be trodden between authoritarianism and over-familiarity.

This captivating novel is all about the consequences of overstepping this mark and how quickly the goldfish bowl atmosphere of the classroom can become a breeding ground for dangerous emotions and unwise liaisons.

The secret of Long's success is the realism that she imbues into her stories - her earthy dialogue, her acute awareness of relationships and her warm and interesting characters.

The Daughter Game is gritty entertainment and full of the kind of wisdom that can't be be acquired in the classroom alone...

(Picador, hardback, £12.99)