A Dinner Of Herbs by Catherine Cookson

A story you really get your teeth into. Centres around Roddy, and later Mary Ellen, with Kate and Hal playing the supplementary secondary characters. A story of a family... When Kate jnr is introduced, she's like an outcast. She doesn't feel she belongs even though she's part of a large family and they love her. The Bannaman reoccurance is clever - like an evil that follows the family everywhere and wants to destroy them. Mary Ellen's torn love for Roddy and Hal is beautifully done, but interesting how our perception of her changes right at the end of the book when a smidge of class wars rears its ugly head. Pre first World War, set around the smelt mills.