Sally Spencer 
Salt of the Earth 

The first novel in the wonderful East End saga from the author of UP OUR STREETBecky Taylor is born the last of seven children into a poor working class family during the heyday of the Industrial Revolution. Her mother is exhausted by poverty and child-bearing; her father has given the best years of his life to Worrells salt works as a miner. But in spite of the hardships, Becky grows up in a family full of warmth, loyalty and determination. Spanning twenty, this is at once a family saga and a story of the indomitable working class spirit; it is also the story of a beautiful women who is determined to rise about her origins and lead a better life. Her challenge is to achieve her dreams without losing the friends and family to whom she owes everything.