In 1887 Margaret Harkness published her first novel A City Girl: A Realistic Story. This work was considered a slum novel and it was not the first of its kind set in the East End of London in the 1880s. She published the work under the name John Law. She adopted this pseudonym in 1886 and used it for most of her writings. The Vizetelly & Co. Intermittent work in Scotland became her publisher on behalf of Keir Hardie.

Harkness, Margaret. A City Girl, edited Tabitha Sparks. Broadview editions 1887.