The Pride of Lancashire by Anna Jacobs is the first book in a series that features the Preston family. The Prestons are a working class family with a drunkard for a father and a mother who is totally incompetent and so relies upon her eldest daughter, Carrie, to feed and clothe the ten children. As the story of this family unfolds the reader also learns much about nineteenth century lower class life styles with their reliance upon a mill owner for housing, food and even proper drinking water.

Carrie’s life is hard but she meets a young man with ambitions. He plans to open one of the new music halls that are currently sweeping the country. Unfortunately the rich mill owner has his eye on the property that has been set aside for the music hall and he will do anything to ensure he gains control of it.

With romance, history and plenty of action, this was an exciting escape from reality. The author provides a good story that has the reader cheering on the underdogs and hoping to see the villain of the piece brought down. And although we have a somewhat happy ending, this is only the first book, so I expect there will be plenty of setbacks and, hopefully, advances in the Preston’s future. ( )