Books include Mr Wroe’s Virgins (which she dramatised as an award-winning BBC drama serial), Island, and The Testament of Jessie Lamb (ManBooker longlisted, winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award 2012).

Having family on my Dad’s side from the Isle of Axeholme, I know my ancestors would have experienced the Methodist revival started by John Wesley who hailed from Epworth. The Creative Writing audio lessons provided by the Open University on iTunes includes two interviews with Jane Rogers on her craft, both dealing with Mr Wroe's Virgins. Later, in 1830 he received a further message, that God wanted his followers to provide Mr Wroe with seven virgins ‘for comfort and succour’. The story of John Wroe – the self-proclaimed Prophet who taught that Ashton would be The New Jerusalem". Although some are "bad", others learn from the other women, and from the prophet and his teachings as well.Told with humor, irony and a generosity that embraces even the sinister Wroe, this is a compelling story of astonishing depth, elucidating religious idealism, the beginnings of socialism and the ubiquitous position of women as unpaid laborers. Despite being acquitted, the Sanctuary was invaded by a rioting mob and Wroe barely escaped with his life.

I was completely drawn into their world, interested in how each of them sees their role and their opportunity in life. In 1830, in Lancashire, England, prophet John Wroe obtained from his congregation seven women, purportedly virgins, to provide him comfort and household assistance.

She has already appraised each of us, passing over me without concern, checking, testing, comparing. The innocent and devoted Joanna has cause to believe this as something quite similar really had happened between her and Wroe, which the preacher had managed to convince her was "god's will". Jane Rogers’ fictionalized account of the ensuing events is woven from the conflicting motives, ideas, beliefs and passions of those involved. Pat told me she was getting out of “the women’s ghetto”; she was planning a book about men and war, she was going to beat the boys at their own game. This really is a story of how easily people can be duped, how people can believe they see something because that is what they want to see.

Each woman in Wroe's household, from brutalised Martha to saintly Joanna, has her own secret hopes of a new life - either in heaven or on earth - at a point in history when anything seems possible. Mr Wroe is a self proclaimed prophet who leads a church of Christian Israelites in Ashton near Manchester and has managed to persuade the local population that the world will end and only by following him can they go to heaven when the world ends; which is imminent.The service of dedication was delayed by this tragedy, as the Prophet visited her father's house to carry thither God's forgiving love, and to urge fortitude on her grieving father. I thought the characterisation of Martha (a boorish girl from a troubled background) was less strong than the portrayal of the other women and I never quite got to grips with her.

This was a very interesting read about Preacher Wroe and how he may have caused his own downfall when living in Ashton-under-Lyne, in the early 19th century.The light is poor, a couple of tapers only burning at each end of the table, and a small smoky fire hissing in the great hearth. I found it convincing, at least as much as any fictional projection of a lost past can be, from the very different times in which we now live.