The Secret Kingdom (novel)

The Secret Kingdom is a 1938 novel by the British writer Walter Greenwood. Like his best-known novel Love on the Dole it is set in Salford. It portrays the working-class socialist Byron family, and particularly the eldest daughter Paula who tries to establish an independent identity after finding working a parlour maid. She encounters Bert Treville in nearby Manchester and the two begin a courtship. After his death due to heavy drinking, she brings up her son Lance as a single-mother, throwing her effort into her talented child she is vindicated when he emerges as a talented concert pianist - performing on national radio in the final scene.

Adaptation
In 1960 it was adapted into an eight-part BBC television series of the same title. Greenwood had in the 1940s had written a screenplay based on the story, but it remained unproduced.