Like with many my first introduction to North and South was through the BBC adaptation with Richard Armitage and Daniella Denby Ashe. However while the series is effervescent the novel is just as engrossing.

I liked the slow progression, almost Elizabeth Bennett like, of both the main characters. It is in many ways a sort of later, more industrial Pride and Prejudice although if anything I preferred the low born, hard working Mr Thornton to Darcy.

Margaret I was less sure about but soon I came to sympathise with the girl who had lived a golden lit life only to have it all taken away. Her character is complex, kind and it's easy to see what Mr Thornton sees in her, and she in him.

Side characters such as Margaret's parents, Mrs Thornton and the entirely lovable Higgins family with their pride and strength...it brings the abject poverty of those living in industrial towns during the 1800's fully to life.

This is a great and, in my opinion, underrated classic. Must read.