Book excerpt: ‘This little lass is strong. She will carry the ropes and walk forever.’ It is as well that these words, spoken by Minnie’s great grandmother at her birth, prove to be prophetic, for the ropemaker’s youngest daughter needs all the strength and courage she can muster in the subterranean cavern which is the family home. And not only there but even more so in Sheffield where she goes to support her ailing sister and finds an even harsher existence where squalor and injustice are rife.