Anne-Marie's novel approach to Dickens

A mother-of-two from Wolverhampton, who left school at 16 and has never had so much as a letter published, has become a novelist at her first try.

But Anne-Marie Vukelic fears she may upset fans of Charles Dickens with the subject matter of her book, which focuses on the Victorian writer's suspect relationship with his wife's younger sisters.

During her research, the 42-year-old health worker also discovered the novelist visited Wolverhampton at least once to read his work.

But the book, written in the form of a journal by his wife Catherine Dickens, centres on her concerns that he had romantic feelings for her sisters Mary and Georgiana, both of whom he took to live in the marital home.

Far Above Rubies will be published on May 31.

She said: "I can't quite take it in. I never set out to write a book - it was a hobby that just grew."

The former St Peter's pupil, who lives in Windmill Crescent, Castlecroft, with husband Steve and their sons, aged eight and 14, wrote the book in the evenings after finishing work as a mental health manager in Birmingham.