I don't want my leisure-time reading to be filled with that type of storyline, and I certainly don't want the description of said abuse to be graphic and prolonged, as it was in The Four Streets. Nevertheless, the good Catholics do all appear to quietly absorb the reminder that perpetual pregnancy punctuated by squirting a kid onto the kitchen floor every nine months is the healthiest state for the Irish immigrant housewife, as no one in the novel tries their luck with such modern notions afterwards. Sean and Alice start a new life in Chicago and the mystery of Father James's death begins to unravel.

Things in the novel appear to happen purely because they seem like a good idea at the time to the author. It has a very dark side to which some Catholics, of which I am one although now lapsed, may take great offence. Neighbours in Liverpool had taken the place of family in Ireland and the community was emotionally self-supporting. This book is written by Nadine Dorries who most people in the UK will know as a somewhat controversial MP. If you like an action packed story which tugs at the heartstrings this book (one from a trilogy) is for you.

Aha, Jerry thought, seeing an opportunity in the girl's problem, thank ye Lord, a hundred thousand times, for here's me chance. I felt as though they were burning into me very soul,' was how Bernadette described her first meeting with Jerry, wistfully and often, her eyes welling up at the mere memory of the day.

The Bookseller's editor Philip Jones pointed to "some smart pricing decisions" from Head of Zeus for the digital edition of The Four Streets. Nadine Dorries was born in Liverpool in the 1950s and raised on a council estate, the daughter of a bus driver. But the children are also bringers of joy and love, and mothers never really die, so maybe that's alright then. Nadine trained as a nurse, then followed with a successful career in which she established and then sold her own business. Let me take you by the hand and lead you up from the Mersey River – to the four streets, and the houses stained black from soot and a pea-soup smog, which, when winter beckons, rubs itself up against the doors and windows, slips in through the cracks and into the lungs of gurgling babies and toothless grannies.Pink uniforms are described in this book but it's not clear if she is wearing one or not, but assuming that since this book description says 1950s and the first Lovely Lane book says 1953 it's a little bit hard to credit her going from unprofessional potential probationer nurse to sister that everyone is terrified of in 3 years.