Cronin wrote and destroyed his firsts drafts of this story while working on it. Finally in 1931 [b:Hatter's Castle|634757|Hatter's Castle|A.J. Cronin|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1357386663s/634757.jpg|621044], Cronin's first novel, was published. Meet the Brodie family: James Brodie and his wife Margaret Brodie, their children Matthew, Mary, Nessie and Mr Brodie's mother. In the story we see how the family is broken and destroyed by the tyrannical Brodie. The book is available for free here http://archive.org/details/hatterscastle031504mbp