'You must always tell the story,' Mr Dickens says. 'If you tell it first, yours will be the version that people believe.'

Isa Rose can hardly believe her luck when she lands a job as a maid to Charles Dickens' family. She has writing ambitions of her own and it isn't long before the charming, convivial Charles begins to take her under his wing. But as Isa is drawn into the lives of the Dickens' family, she begins to realise that behind closed doors all is not quite as it seems, and not everyone there is happy about her growing influence.

Years before, a young Charles marries his wife Catherine. Catherine is deliriously happy, overwhelmed by the speed and determination of her courting. But as the time passes she realises Charles has an unyielding core, and a secret shame that leads back to his childhood. As the Dickens' marriage builds towards a perfect storm of frustration, loss, guilt and control, young Isa arrives at their door.

Told in an addictive, voice-driven dual narrative, at once sweeping and intimate, Master, Mistress, Maid gives a contemporary twist to a long-buried tale.