Ellen Wilkinson (1891-1947) was a key figure in the socialist and feminist movement. She was born in Manchester and became the first woman on the city council, she supported women's suffrage, became Labour MP for Jarrow and helped lead the Jarrow Crusade. She was the first female Minister of Education, in 1945 government.

"There are two distinct conflicts in this very clever and successful first novel. There is, to begin with, political warfare. Joan Craig, the attractive daughter of a Northern factory operative, becomes a Trade Union organizer, and Miss Wilkinson, in describing her heroine's experiences, takes us behind the scenes and shows us the General Strike of 1926 as she herself probably saw it. Then there is the rivalry between Joan's two suitors..." - THE SPECTATOR