BEST-SELLING authoress Ruth Hamilton has obviously got Bolton written all the way through her.

She lives nearer Liverpool these days, but her heart remains with her home town. And her charismatic writing echoes the loyalty.

Open up her latest novel Saturday's Child * and it is like chatting to an old friend -- reassuring, comforting, interesting and familiar.

The time is 1950. Magsy O'Gara, her daughter Beth and their neighbour Nellie Hulme were all born on the same day of the week.

"Saturday's child works hard for a living" goes the old saying, and for these three, very different females the daily working grind is the rule in their homely community.

Life is not always kind, though. Magsy's husband has been killed in the war, Beth longs for normal family life, and Nellie is trapped in a world of silence, deaf since infancy.

As always in Ruth's well-crafted books, Fate waits for them just around the street corner, promising an intricate web of events before the tale is done.

This pleasing novel is bound to quickly top the local best-sellers -- boosted by Ruth's visit back to Bolton today -- and gain the town's favourite writer more plaudits.

For Ruth, this book is another vehicle for her rich imagination and fine storytelling skills.

For her fans, it is a further chance to indulge in nostalgic Ruth Hamilton-itis, with all the satisfaction and thought-provoking pleasure that this means.

* Saturday's Child by Ruth Hamilton, published by Corgi Books at £5.99.