Written in 1913, D H Lawrence's first major novel, Sons and Lovers, was the one of the earliest in the English language to explore a close-knit mining community from the inside. Lawrence's semi-autobiographical novel, set in the Nottinghamshire coal fields, is renowned for its accurate portrayal of working-class life and for its use of local dialect. It traces emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with his over possessive mother, and the women he falls in love with. Lawrence's powerful description of Paul's single-minded efforts to define himself sexually and emotionally through relationships with two women—the innocent, old-fashioned Miriam Leivers and the experienced, provocatively modern Clara Dawes—ensure a powerful work of literary fiction that is as engaging and powerful today as it was when it was first written.

Narrator HELEN LLOYD grew up in Nottingham and has a strong connection with the regional dialect, and with many of the novel's locations. She went to school in Sneinton, walks her dog over Bennerley viaduct, and has lived less than six miles from Lawrence's home town of Eastwood for the past thirty years.