A FASCINATING glimpse into the early life of Bolton-born best-selling author Ruth Hamilton is on offer in her home town next month.

The former Linda Girling will be hosting an event at Rivington Barn on Thursday, April 28, from 7.30pm.

In aid of Fortalice - the Bolton hostel for women and children fleeing domestic violence - An Evening With Ruth Hamilton will include a reading of her prose and poems and anecdotes from the writer's life.

She spent her early years in Emblem Street, Deane, and, although she would have loved to have become a reporter on the Bolton Evening News, she opted instead for teacher-training and spent "four very happy years" teaching at Sunninghill School in Deane. Ex-pupils still keep in touch with her.

She married and moved to Merseyside where, between working in a school for special needs children, she started writing her first novel, A Whisper To The Living.

When ill-health struck, she took advantage of enforced time at home to write with a vengeance, creating what became an instant best-selling debut.

Although her marriage foundered, she continued living in Merseyside with her two sons, David and Michael, and has built a solid career in popular literature, acclaimed as the natural successor to Catherine Cookson.

Her books have sold by the million, and in June her 17th, The Bellhouse, is published in hardback and paperback, followed by Dorothy's War in November.

Most of her novels, like her latest two, are set either in Bolton or on Merseyside and she admits that her "heart is split" between the two areas.

Tickets for the Bolton event are £10 each from 01204 523 476.