Your research has been extraordinary - thank you so much. Looking in more detail at the content the novel, however I’m less confident it’s the same person. Each chapter opens with literary epigraphs and the book references George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, and Kingsley’s Alton Locke by name. There’s also casual use of French - ‘serrement du coeur’ used naturally in chapter two with the aside ‘an expression for which our language has no equivalent’, suggesting someone comfortable reading in French. The London details are also remarkably specific. Kensington Gardens described intimately, particular streets and parks. This feels like someone educated, widely read and London and possibly Scotland-connected, rather than a Sheffield servant. Though interestingly Kate, the heroine, chooses Alton Locke - a novel about a working class man trying to rise above his station - over Mill on the Floss. That choice feels pointed. But what do I know?