Published by Faber and Faber in 1991, Mr Wroe's Virgins is probably Jane Rogers' best-known book. It was later adapted by her as a successful television drama. Set during real events of the early 1830s in the Lancashire town of Ashton-under-Lyne, it proceeds in a series of monologues spoken by four of the seven women given to preacher John Wroe by his congregation for 'comfort and succour'.