Working-Class Women Writing

I am enthralled by this (famous) working-class woman writer and would happily do a dissertation about her.  However, as far my current project is concerned it’s time to call it a day on her work.

But first, a few more memorable quotations from a novel of hers I’m reading at the moment:

i)    ‘She packed Stella off home in a taxi, though not before interrogating her as to what she was doing with a six-inch crucifix wedged down her sock.          She had spotted it when Stella was laid out on the sofa.
       “It’s just a symbol.” Stella said.
       “I’m not soft.” said Rose.
       “I find it comforting.”
       “You’re never a Catholic.”
       “No,” admitted Stella, “but I’m thinking about it.”
       “While you’re thinking,” Rose said, “it might be worth considering wearing a slightly smaller cross, on a chain round your neck, like normal folk.”’

ii)    ‘While Vernon and Lily were serving breakfast she sneaked out and hid the crucifix behind a pile of Mr Harcourt’s empty cardboard boxes in the               backyard. She hadn’t forgotten going to the pictures with Vernon to see The Song of Bernadette. He’d only agreed to go because Lily told him it             was a musical and had walked out the moment Bernadette started sinking to her knees in the fields. Afterwards he’d sworn he would prefer to see           any child of his six foot under rather than taken for a nun.’

BTW. I'm not being funny but I have an urge to read Animal Farm. Fortuitously, I happen to be in the library. Now, where is it?...hmmm all copies are out - popular book obvs.