Best known for her reflections on American society in 'Domestic Manners of the Americans', here we see Mrs Trollope turn her hand to injustice and cruelty on English soil. As a contemporary of Jane Austen, and mother of the prolific novelist Anthony Trollope, she was very much aware of the hierarchical nature of her society, and the story of Jessie Phillips is a wonderfully engaging account of the struggles and hard-won triumphs of a life lived on the wrong side of the divide.