Mother of four Karen Woods uses her experiences of growing up on a Manchester council estate in her debut novel. Having left school with no qualifications and seen her parents split-up, she spent her formative years raising children and suffering domestic abuse.

However a job with Manchester City Council led to a literacy course and, eventually, the desire to write a novel. "There are four things I want people to do when they read this book", says Karen, "laugh, cry, think and change their lives for the better".