A children's book based upon the true story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs is to be published.

The Sheltering Tree by Fiona Taylor will be published on Amazon Kindle on July 31.

Aimed at youngsters aged between 8 and12, the book's protagonist is 13-year-old Elizabeth Standfield whose family have lived happily in Tolpuddle for generations working as farm labourers.

But in the early 1830s disaster strikes when the local landowner, Squire Frampton, reduces the labourers' wage to six shillings a week. Some of the village men decide to form a trade union and protest against the inequality of their wages.

Squire Frampton, fearing revolution and rebellion, has six of the men who he considers to be the ringleaders, arrested and transported to Australia for seven years. Among these men are Elizabeth’s father, brother and her close friend James Brine. Elizabeth refuses to give in to despair and uses every strength and integrity to help protect her family, and to fight for justice in bringing the men back home.