The upstart - Catherine Cookson

Suddenly risen from shoemaker to a position of power and influence, Samuel Fairbrother decides that his new station in life deserves a more imposing residence. And so he moves his family into a mansion. With the house comes Maitland, a hostile butler who views Samuel as nothing more than an upstart.

As the century turns, Samuel's children grow up and move away – all except his eldest daughter, Janet. And when the scattered family seems increasingly irreconcilable, it is Janet who holds the key to her father's ultimate happiness.

The Upstart is an absorbing, beautifully told story of wealth, family ties and class conflict at the end of the nineteenth century.