Sara Cox

The inhabitants of the Inventor's Housing Estate keep themselves to themselves. There are the friendly 'Hellos' when commutes coincide and the odd cheeky eye roll when the wine bottles clank in number 7's wheelie bin, but it's not exactly Ramsay Street.

The dilapidated community centre is no longer the beating heart of the estate that Becky remembers from her childhood. So the new pottery class she's helped set up feels like a fresh start. And not just for her.

The assorted neighbours come together to try out a new skill, under the watchful eye of their charismatic teacher, Sasha. And as the soft unremarkable lumps of clay are hesitantly, lovingly moulded into delicate vases and majestic pots, so too are the lives of four women. Concealed passions and heartaches are uncovered, relationships shattered and formed, and the possibility for transformation is revealed.

The youngest of five siblings, Sara grew up on her father's cattle farm surrounded by dogs, cows, horses, fields and lots of 'cack'. The lanky kid sister - half girl, half forehead - a nuisance to the older kids, the farm was her very own dangerous adventure playground, 'a Bolton version of Narnia'.

Her writing conjures up a time of wagon rides and haymaking and agricultural shows alongside chain-smoking pensioners, cabaret nights at the Conservative club and benign parenting. Sara's love of family, of the animals and the people around them, shines through. Unforgettable characters are lovingly and expertly drawn, bringing to life a time and place.

Sara later divided her childhood days between the beloved farm and the pub she lived above with her mother. These early experiences of freedom and adventure came to be the perfect training ground for later life.

This funny, big-hearted and often moving telling of Sara Cox's semirural upbringing is not what you'd expect from the original ladette and one of radio's most enduring and well-loved presenters.

Josie's life is fine. Absolutely, completely fine.

Nice husband, brilliant best friend, a gorgeous kid at uni. The big house of her dreams on its leafy London street is a lifetime away from the Lancashire farm of her childhood. So what if her mother is tricky, and James isn't in love with Josie anymore, and maybe she's not in love with him either? It's great to have time to herself now Chloe's flown the nest… isn't it?

This is the life Josie never believed possible. The life she needed when her heart was breaking as a child. So why this feeling, nibbling away at the edges of Josie's thoughts?

If Josie is to truly live, she must now take back the reins and confront her future. And to find her way ahead, she needs to go back to the place where it all began…