WRITER Diane Allen's new book is a sweeping family drama set in the Yorkshire Dales.

The Miner's Wife follows the life of a young woman who falls in love with a man, who is not all that he seems.

19 year old Meg Oversby often dreams of a more exciting life than the dull existence she faces at her family’s farm.

Growing up, she had always sensed her father’s disappointment at not having a son to help with the farm work.

So when Meg dances all night at the local market hall with Sam Alderson, a lead miner from Swaledale, a new light enters her life.

Sam and his brother Jack show Meg a side to life she didn’t know existed. But when her parents find out, she’s forbidden from ever seeing them again.

When Meg’s uncle offers her the chance to help run the small village shop, she leaps at the opportunity, seeing it as a way to escape the oppressive family farm and see more of her beloved Sam.

But as love blossoms, a darker truth emerges and Meg realises that Sam may not be the man she thought he was.

Diane Allen, who lives in Long Preston, with husband, Ronnie, was born in Leeds, but raised at her family's farm in the Dales.

After working as a glass engraver, raising a family and looking after an ill father, she found her true niche in life, joining a large-print publishing firm in 1990.

She now concentrates on her writing full-time and has been made Honorary Vice President of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

The Miner's Wife is published by Pan Macmillan priced £7.99 available from September 19.