Mrs Engels

<p><b>Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction</b></p> <p><i>Love is a bygone idea centuries-worn. There are things we can go without and love is among them; bread and a warm hearth are not.</i></p> <p>In September 1870 a train leaves Manchester bound for London. On board is Lizzie Burns a poor worker from the Irish slums embarking on the journey that will change her forever.</p> <p>Sitting in the first-class carriage beside her lover the wealthy mill-owner Frederick Engels the vision of a life of peace and comfort takes shape before her eyes. But as Lizzie soon learns <i>'the world doesn't happen how you think it will. The secret is to soften to it and to take its blows.'</i></p>