Take this Woman: A moving and utterly compelling coming-of-age saga

No.1 bestselling writer, Josephine Cox, is ''hailed quite rightly as a gifted writer in the tradition of Catherine Cookson'' (Manchester Evening News). Take This Woman is a powerful novel about learning to put your past behind you in the pursuit of happiness, and will appeal to fans of Rosie Goodwin and readers who loved The Fifteen Streets.

Blackburn, 1947. In the tiny front parlour fourteen-year-old Laura Blake watches her beloved father die. But not before he tells her she will make something of her life. Laura never forgets his words. Yet her path to success proves to be a rocky one. Forced to trundle a cart around the back streets, selling other folk''s cast-offs to support her family, Laura learns enough to start work in her uncle''s furniture shop. But then fate deals another cruel blow when Laura is brutally raped. Bearing the child of her attacker in secret, she vows to make the world pay for its injustice towards her.

As she grows older her protective shell hardens even as her beauty blossoms, and her new toughness helps her forge a successful career in the antiques business. But it is in affairs of the heart that Laura stumbles...