Catherine Cookson Boeken

London published Fiction

Een de laatste jaren zeer veel furore makende schrijfster van bestsellers als 'De glazen maagd', 'Katie Mulholland', en 'Het geslacht Mallen' is Catherine Cooksen. Onder het pseudoniem Catherine Marchant is zij onlangs begonnen romans te schrijven die in geen enkel opzicht onderdoen voor de herdruk belevende Cookson-successen! 'Aan de oever van de rivier' is het verhaal van het twintigjarige meisje Martha Crawford, die na de dood van haar moeder een zware last op haar frêle schouders gedrukt krijgt: de leiding van het huishouden in Het Woonhuis, de vervallen bezitting van de Crawfords aan de oever van de Tyne, een paar mijl van Hexham in het landelijke, romantische Northumberland. Plotseling veranderen twee dramatische gebeurtenissen het gewone levenspatroon van Het Woonhuis drastisch. De een stelt Martha Mary voor nog veeleisender verantwoordelijkheden, de ander brengt haar in conflict met een bijzonder openhartig man: dokter Harry Fuller...

Annabella Lagrange is enig kind van welgestelde ouders. De lezer groeit met haar mee als zij de wereld buiten haar ouderlijk huis verkent, en als zij haar eerste liefde voelt voor haar neef Stephen. Als zij de waarheid over haar afkomst te weten komt en zij Manuel leert kennen, gaat deze een belangrijke plaats in haar leven innemen. De glazen maagd' is door de indrukwekkende wijze waarop de tegenstelling tussen arm en rijk is vastgelegd en de hoofdpersonen zijn getekend, een grootse, boeiende en bijzonder onderhoudende roman.

Thomas Mallen van High Banks Hall had vele zonen, voornamelijk onechte kinderen, maar aan allen gaf hij zijn kenmerk door: een opvallende lok wit haar. In de omringende streek van Northumberland werd van dit ‘teken van de Mallens’ gezegd dat zij die het droegen zelden oud werden en dat uit een Mallen nooit iets goeds kon groeien...

Een kleine noordelijke havenstad in Engeland tussen de twee wereldoorlogen: De mensen van het "Bovenste Einde" zijn rijk en verwend, vooraanstaande, gerespecteerde, benijde protestanten. Met de mensen van het "Onderste Einde", deze arme, werkloze bevolking, willen ze niets te maken hebben. Toch reiken twee mensen elkaar de hand over deze schijnbaar onoverkomelijke sociale barrières heen. Sarah, de zachtaardige, vrolijke verkoopster van het "Onderste Einde", en David van het "Bovenste Einde", de goed beschermde zoon uit een welgestelde familie, houden van elkaar en trouwen, ook al lijkt iedereen tegen deze verbintenis te zijn. Sarah en David zijn gelukkig samen, zelfs in deze benauwende, ongunstige wereld. Zelfs wanneer dit geluk abrupt eindigt, blijft Sarah trouw aan David en aan zichzelf. En daarbij staat de zwaarste beproeving nog te wachten...

Catherine Cookson, schrijfster van wereldberoemde boeken als 'Katie Mulholland' en 'De glazen maagd', heeft ook voor deze roman een vrouw als hoofdpersoon gekozen met een rijk gevoelsleven en een grote innerlijke kracht: Cissie Brodie. Zij groeit op in een arbeidersgezin, waarin elke dag weer de zorg drukt van geldgebrek. Wanneer tengevolge van een koortsepidemie haar ouders sterven, rust op de dan 15-jarig Cissie de zorg voor negen broertjes en zusjes. Ze wil de kinderen niet in een weeshuis laten opnemen het lukt haar een min of meer bewoonbare spelonk in de rosten te vinden, waar ze met alle kinderen haar intrek neemt. Op zekere middag wordt ze aangevallen door de jonge lady Isabelle Fishel, waarna haar tweelingbroer lord Clive Cissie aanrandt en verkracht. Negen maanden later baart het beproefde meisje een zoon. De vader van de jonge edelman biedt Cissie een leven van luxe en rijkdom aan in ruil voor zijn kleinzoon. Ze weigert. Daarna wordt zij meegesleurd in een ware stroomversnelling van gebeurtenissen, waaruit zij tenslotte dankzij haar besluitvaardigheid en gezond verstand gelouterd en gelukkig tevoorschijn komt.

Als Tilly's minnaar, Mark Sopwith, in haar armen sterft wordt haar onbaatzuchtige liefde wreed beloond. De vier maanden zwangere Tilly wordt door de familie van haar overleden minaar verdreven van het landgoed. Wanneer haar baby vlak na de geboorte ook nog eens zwaargewond raakt vertrekt de wanhopige Tilly naar Amerika op zoek naar geluk. Samen met haar nieuwe liefde probeert Tilly in Texas een leven op te bouwen. Maar het bestaan in Texas is hard, en de indianen vormen een constante bedreiging. Ook hier krijgt Tilly te maken met jaloezie, overspel en bedrog. En dan slaat het noodlot voor de tweede keer toe...

Fellburn, 1880. Veel boerenfamilies hebben er te kampen met armoede. Wanneer Hector Stewart zijn huwelijk aankondigt met de rijke Moira Conelly, kan zijn zoon Daniel wel raden wat de ware reden is voor de verbintenis. Moira heeft echter iets verzwegen wat haar kapitaal betreft. Ze verwacht rijk te worden, maar is daarin afhankelijk van de gulheid van een tante, die haar een erfenis heeft beloofd. Maar als deze tante overlijdt, blijkt Moira tot haar verbijstering niets te erven.

Dr Higgins's life appeared happy and contented. Everyone had a good word for him, and his home life seemed to be ideal. At 36, his wife not only looked like a much younger woman, but enjoyed the company of people half her age. A fine couple, it was thought, but the reality was very different.

Als dochter van een mijnwerkersfamilie is Katie Mulholland gedwongen om als keukenmeid te werken in het huis van de Rosiers. Maar het mooie jonge meisje trekt al snel de aandacht van de kwaadaardige zoon van haar werkgever, die haar verkracht en haar zwanger achterlaat. De familie wijst Katie snel af en dwingt haar tot een levenloze huwelijk met de wrede manager van de Rosier-mijnen. Maar Katies lot verandert wanneer een man haar de kans biedt om haar eigen fortuin te maken en echte liefde te ontdekken. Het verhaal beslaat Katies leven van 1860 tot het hoogtepunt van de Tweede Wereldoorlog en is een betoverend, triomfantelijk, tijdloos drama van een briljant getalenteerde verhalenverteller.

Zodra ze Shekinah Hall ziet, het huis op de heide nabij Hexham, voelt Constance Stapleton zich ertoe aangetrokken. Haar huwelijk staat op springen en ze weet dat een verhuizing de eerste stap kan zijn om eindelijk los te komen van haar echtgenoot Jim. Om het huis te kunnen kopen moet ze onderhandelen met ene Vincent O'Connor, een nogal botte, gesloten man. Ondanks zijn hoekige karakter en zijn zonderlinge haast om van het huis af te komen, sluit Constance een overeenkomst met hem. In de loop van de tijd die ze nodig heeft om aan haar nieuwe leven te wennen, gaat ze hem meer waarderen en steeds zwaarder op hem leunen. Totdat er schokkende feiten over haar man aan het licht komen, die haar bestaan op zijn grondvesten doen schudden.

Als kind reeds was Barbara beeldschoon, maar terwijl haar schoonheid in de loop der jaren rijpt, wordt haar leven overschaduwd door een rampzalige aandoening: ze wordt geheel doof. Maar deze doofheid beschermt haar wel tegen een nog grotere ramp: de waarheid over haar afkomst. De dorpsbewoners hebben haar al herkend als een echte Mallen, want uit de vastberadenheid waarmee Barbara haar zinnen zet op de knappe Michael Radlet blijkt de Mallen-trots en het daarbij behorende eigenzinnige karakter. Haar karakter, dat een regelrechte erfenis is van de oude Thomas Mallen, vader van vele onwettige kinderen, die jarenlang de scepter over de streek heeft gezwaaid. Totdat hij zijn goede naam verspeelde... Met BARBARA voegt de begaafde schrijfster Catherine Cookson een nieuw deel toe aan haar drieluik over de Mallens. Dit op zichzelf staande deel sluit aan op DE GETEKENDEN dat eveneens als Parel Pocket is verschenen.

There are men who can at times be stirred by the power and conflict of their own emotions to the point of shedding tears. Such a man was Abel Mason. Unhappily married to the shrewish Lena, he sought release in a love affair that soon ended in brutal tragedy. Abel left home, taking with him his young son, Dick, and together they tramped their way to the North where his roots lay. It was as hard and sometimes traumatic journey, and at its end there seemed to open up whole new vistas of life and experience. But the legacy of the past remained, and the burden of its secrets would continue to play a major part in shaping Abel's destiny and Dick's character alike.

Na de dood van haar moeder wordt een mooi 7-jarig meisje opgevoed door een voddenkoopvrouw en een niet-volgroeide 17-jarige jongen, die haar proberen te beschermen tegen de gevaren van het 19e-eeuwse Engeland.

In Maggie Rowan beschrijft Catherine Cookson het veelbewogen leven van twee zusjes Rowan. Aanvankelijk brengt hun onverbrekelijke band hun veel voorspoed. Maar hun trouw zal hen ook tot aan de rand van een gapende afgrond voeren... Maggie Rowan is een hartverwarmend verhaal dat zich afspeelt tegen de achtergrond van het prachtige Engelse landschap.

In Wolken drijven over beschrijft Catherine Cookson op indringende wijze het leven van een vrouw, die niet veel vreugde heeft gekend, maar die door haar wilskracht talloze moeilijkheden weet te overwinnen. Fanny Macbride heeft elf kinderen grootgebracht en woont sinds de dood van haar man alleen met haar zoon Phil. De andere kinderen wonen verspreid over Engeland en late alleen met Kerstmis iets van zich horen. Op een dag kondigt ook Phil aan te vertrekken; hij kan Scarsborough een goede baan krijgen. Dit betekent dat Far alleen nog haar pensioentje heeft om van te leven... Maar opeens is Phil van idee veranderd en wil toch het hui uit. Fanny heeft zo haar gedachten over deze verandering: heeft zijn belangstelling voor de dochter van de nieuwe boven buren, Margaret, opgemerkt...

Ann Emmerson wijdt zich volledig aan haar zoon Laurie en tussen hen bestaat een dermate hechte band dat niets die kan verbreken. Zelfs voor haar man John, Lauries vader, is het onmogelijk om ertussen te komen. Als Laurie zich verlooft, kan Ann dit moeilijk aanvaarden. En zonder dat ze zich dat realiseert, is haar zoon niet de enige man die langzaam maar zeker uit haar leven verdwijnt. Na jaren van gebrek aan warmte heeft John Emmerson een vrouw gevonden die een grote genegenheid voor hem koestert, een vrouw die hem kan beminnen

Rosie Paterson is de dochter uit een gemengd huwelijk: haar vader James is een zwarte zeeman en haar moeder Bridget is blank. Rosie groeit op in de overwegend blanke wereld van Liverpool. Hoewel ze opbloeit tot een knappe jonge vrouw ervaart ze dat ze in de stad, op school en zelfs door haar moeders familie wordt gediscrimineerd. Hoe Rosie zich aan de haar zo vijandige wereld weet te ontworstelen en het geluk vindt dat haar toekomt, is het gevoelige thema van deze onvergetelijke roman van de legendarische schrijfster Catherine Cookson.

Her expensive convent education hadn't changed Mary Ann Shaughnessy one little bit. Sure, she could come over all refined when she had to, but who'd want to talk ever so nice on a farm? But in other respects she was growing up fast. As Mary Ann began to learn about the feelings of adults, so could she see that the more they loved someone, the more they could hurt and be hurt. And it wasn't just grown-ups who felt this way either. With something of a start, she realised that - whenever she caught sight of Corny Boyle - she could recognise those same feeling swelling up inside herself.

De veertienjarige Marie Anne Lawson is de jongste telg van een welgestelde familie. Als ze op een dag valt en haar enkel bezeert, vindt de 'vreemdeling' haar. De man heeft een enorme zwarte vlek die de helft van zijn gezicht en hals bedekt en wordt door velen gevreesd. Marie Anne schrikt zo van zijn verschijning dat ze buiten westen raakt. Als ze weer bijkomt is ze thuis, en is de vreemdeling nergens meer te bekennen. Nadat Marie Anne is hersteld, stuurt haar moeder haar naar haar tante Martha in Londen, om haar opleiding te voltooien. Tante Martha blijkt een kille, onvriendelijke vrouw te zijn. Maar gelukkig is er Sarah, Martha's dienstmeisje, met wie Marie Anne vriendschap sluit. Sarah blijkt er voor haar te zijn in alle moeilijke tijden die volgen. Maar ook de vreemdeling die haar ooit redde blijkt een belangrijke rol te spelen in haar leven...

De jonge weduwe Fiona is gelukkig getrouwd met haar voormalige huurder Bill Bailey, en naast de zorg voor haar kinderen adopteren ze ook samen het weeskind Mamie. Bill is redelijk succesvol als aannemer en zijn mannen zijn even loyaal aan hem als andersom. Het leven is een tijdlang goed, maar dan slaat de economische crisis toe. De concurrentie is fel om de weinige opdrachten die er nog zijn binnen te halen, en dat spel wordt niet altijd even eerlijk gespeeld... Ook aan het thuisfront slaat de onrust toe als Willie, een van hun zoons, de nogal ruige, kleurrijke Sammy leert kennen. Fiona heeft ernstige twijfels bij deze jongen, maar uiteindelijk blijken juist Sammy en zijn familie een belangrijke bijdrage te kunnen leveren aan het levensgeluk van Bill en Fiona en hun gezin.

Een roman met een groot dramatisch bereik, gesitueerd in de Tyneside-steden en het omliggende platteland van Durham dat Cookson goed kende.

Een edelmoedig man trouwt in de tweede helft van de negentiende eeuw een fabrieksmeisje dat door een zoon uit een oud geslacht is verkracht.

De belevenissen van een ouderpaar in de periode 1943-7̕1, dat zich door hard werken een zekere welstand heeft verworven maar hiervan niet genieten kan door de zorgen om de vier kinderen, in het bijzonder om de oudste zoon.

Een ambitieuze Engelse vrouw, die wil dat haar zoon later de titel en het landgoed van zijn oom erft, deinst er niet voor terug hiertoe over lijken te gaan.

The year was 1851 and Rory McAlister was learning the wheelwright's trade in a small town in the north of England. At fifteen, Rory could think of no finer way of life than the one he led as Mr. Cornwall's apprentice. Mr. and Mrs. Cornwall treated him almost as a son. His own family lived nearby and he was able to visit them occasionaly and help them out with his wages. Everyone in the village had a friendly word for him. And -- especially -- there was Lily. But the simple pattern of Rory's life was suddenly shattered. Mr. Cornwallis was injured on the eve of his yearly journey to the West Country, where it was vblieved he went to visit his mother, and Rory was asked to make the journey in his place. But what was the mysterious Blue Baccy the Cornwallises had been discussing? "You'll remember this night for as long as you live, boy," said Mr. Cornwallis. And Rory would remember -- the Isle of Jersey, long night hours at sea, the sound of shots, the sight of death, the taste of fear. He would never forget the new truths revealed through his strange journey -- some of them difficult to accept -- about those he admired and trusted most. But above all he would learn what Blue Baccy was; what it meant to those who risked their lives for it -- and to his master and himself.

John Emmerson was a lonely man. He had a wife, a son, friends, but he was isolated from all the people and events about him by the tragedy of his past. Then, he met Cissie, and for the first time his loneliness eased a little. Cissie was everything his wife Ann was not. And, she was quick to sense the needs of a desolate, unhappy man.

'Me da's a grand man!' Mary Ann Shaughnessy has spoken; question her who dare. For although Mary Ann may look quite an ordinary small girl from a dockland tenement, always hot in defense of a ne'er-do-well father, she is in fact a one-man army, armoured with faith and possessed of formidable qualities. Set on Tyneside, the part of the world which Catherine Cookson knew and understood so well, this heartwarming and humorously observed book skillfully weds an authentic and unsentimentalized background to the kind of fairytale story that we all like to believe could come true and which the Mary Ann Shaughnessys of this world know to be true. The moral of A Grand Man is simply that faith can move mountains, but the delight of the book lies in the telling and in the character of its heroine as she battles, connives, and bargains to get a better way of life for those she loves and especially for the 'grand man' himself. A Grand Man is the first of the Mary Ann stories and was made into a film, Jacqueline, in 1954.

Dr Rodney Prince's desire for a family had been frozen out by a wife who had wanted Harley Street, not a Tyneside slum. By contrast, Kate Hannigan glowed with a warmth that was out of place in the grime and squalor of the Fifteen Streets. And so, between Rodney Prince, a wealthy man locked in an unhappy marriage, and Kate Hannigan, a bastard child of the slums, grew a love that opposed all the concepts of an Edwardian society. About the Author: Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, whom she believed to be her older sister. At the age of forty she began writing about the lives of the working-class people with whom she had grown up, using the place of her birth as the background to many of her novels. Her many bestselling novels established her as one of the most popular of contemporary women novelists. After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday in June 1998.

Tilly Trotter isn't like the other girls in the villages of County Durham. Tall and coltish, she's not afraid of taking on 'man's work' to help out the grandparents who raised her. There's an unusual beauty to her too - a beauty that's envied by the local women and lusted after by the men.But for all the attention Tilly only loves one man, farmer Simon Bentwood, and she's heartbroken to discover that he's betrothed to another. But there are even harder times ahead for Tilly. A spurned suitor takes a terrible revenge. Idle gossip brands her a witch. A betrayal forces her into the cruel drudgery of the local mine and puts her life in danger. But Tilly refuses to let her spirit be broken - determined that all this will serve only to make her stronger...

Book by unknown

Rooney was 35 and the only one of the dustbin gang still unmarried, having avoided four widows and two spinsters. But it all went flying out of the window when he moved into Ma Howlett's place, where the rug of his comfortable old habits were yanked from under him, and life became complicated.

Fourteen-year-old Marie Anne Lawson, youngest daughter of a prosperous Northumbrian family, fleeing from something she couldn't bear to see, fell and broke her ankle. She was discovered by a local man who, because of a disfigurement, was known thereabouts as 'the bandedman'. Her mother impatiently awaited her recovery, for she had already planned to send her wayward daughter to London, where her Aunt Martha could encourage the child's natural talent for the piano. But Aunt Martha's regime was so harsh that only the friendship of her aunt's companion, Sara Foggerty, stopped Marie Anne from plunging into despair--that and the encouragement she received from her music tutor. Why, then, did his sudden disappearance make it necessary for her to return to Northumberland, this time into the care of her grandfather? Set at the turn of the century in Northumberland and London, THE BRANDED MAN is the gripping story of Marie Anne, Sarah Foggerty and the mysterious 'branded man', who was to influence both their lives to an extent that neither of them could have imagined. This, Catherine Cookson's eighty-fifth novel, is yet another example of her extraordinary talent for compulsive storytelling.

From British publishing phenomenon Catherine Cookson comes two beloved books--"Hamilton" and "Goodbye Hamilton"--now available in the United States for the first time and offered in one convenient volume.

After the death of her father, Emma Molinero moves in with her grandmother and struggles to find a place for herself in a rugged English village

The Victorian Sabbath was not without its difficulties for some of those committed to its observance. Such a one was Nancy Ann Hazel, the young and high-spirited daughter of a country parson. He was a good man and she loved him dearly, but his Sunday sermons could seem long indeed when beyond the church door the sunshine beckoned her into the fields of this pleasant corner of County Durham. Two older brothers had taught Nancy Ann how to look after herself, so that she could, when necessary, hold her own with the roughest of the village children, eventhough such escapades might not be considered altogether fitting in a daughter of the vicarage; but they foreshadowed the courage and fortitude she would soon enough have to muster when the greater challenges of a controversial marriage thrust her into womanhood, and when conflict and tragedy alike had to be faced and overcome. THE PARSON'S DAUGHTER is a major novel spanning the last quarter of the nineteenth century and introduces one of Catherine Cookson's most memorable heroines. Its strong and vibrant narrative will captivate this great storyteller's readers throughout the world.

Now, following the remarkable success of that volume, she has compiled a further selection of thoughts, recollections, and observations on life - and death - together with another collection of the poems she prefers to describe as 'prose on short lines'.

In the fifth of the series, Mary Ann discovers that life is indeed a sad and funny affair. In her attempts to come to grips with the painful business of growing up she is hard pressed, but nevertheless determined, to remain her old irrepressable self.

When Millie Forester's mother abandons her one late June afternoon in 1854, the girl bursts unexpectedly into Aggie Winkowski's life. Aggie, known locally as 'Raggie Aggie' for her long-established business of trading rags and old clothes, knows the dangers waiting for such a strikingly pretty girl left alone in this rough and vice-ridden quarter, and sees no other option but to take her in. But what begins as a compassionate solution soon leads to the development of a new, deepening relationship that is to mould Millie's destiny, and give new meaning to the lift of Aggie Winkowski . . . The Rag Nymph is a gripping historical novel, embracing the good and evil of the Victorian era.

Even in the worst days of the recession, the McQueen family remains upbeat. They watch as their neighbours depart for the workhouse, their last pieces of furniture carted off by the bailiffs. But even though there might not be much on the table, the McQueen house constantly echoes with laughter. This is what keeps them strong - when all else fails, you can always laugh. Like many of the residents of the Fifteen Streets, the McQueens are as blunt as they are big-hearted. They are opinionated, and speak with no holds barred if anyone dare go against social convention. So imagine their shock when Bridget McQueen brings home her African husband. "Colour Blind" is an absorbing story of prejudice, racial tension and family feuding in the 1920s, from one of Britain's most skilled storytellers.

Rory Connor was a gambling man and he had a gambler's luck. From the day he was born, his mother had known that Rory would be the one to make something of his life. At seven years old he was earning money from odd jobs and by fourteen he was in full-time work. By the time he was nineteen, he had escaped the factory to become a rent-collector. Now, at twenty-three, ambition was in full flow and he was always looking to bigger and better games to play. He feared nothing and nobody, not even the unscrupulous landlord he collected for. For an ordinary working lad, he was doing well - until one day, his luck changed and suddenly, things did not go as smoothly as he was used to...

From the moment they met, Rod's virile good looks and vitality totally enthralled Maggie, while his dynamic business success introduced her to a world of wealth and luxury beyond her wildest dreams. But now Maggie had discovered the shameful secret in her husband's life -- a secret that made a mockery of her feelings and their marriage. And now she had to find the strength to survive the break-up of that marriage and the breaking of her heart, and to learn to live and love again....

Provocative 16-year-old Vanessa was a member of the powerful and avaricious Ratcliffe family, and Angus Cotton a rough diamond who lived down among the goods yards. Events were to draw the pair together.

From generation to generation bad luck and misfortune had befallen each and every member of the Mallen family.  It seemed as though the ghost of old Thomas Mallen himself lived on in his unfortunate descendants, and Barbara had spent her life trying to forget he was her father. Then, when her triplets--the Mallen litter--were born, there in one of her sons was the unmistakable sign of the Mallen breed.  How long would she have to wait and see if history would repeat itself? THE MALLEN LITTER is the third and final part of the multi-generation story of the Mallens, which began with The Mallen Streak and continued in The Mallen Girl.

A legacy of hatred can be a terrible force in life, over which not even an enduring love and all the fruits of material success may prevail. Catherine Cookson explores this theme in a major novel that will absorb and enthral her readers as irresistibly as any she has written. Roddy Greenbank was brought by his father to the remote Northumberland community of Langley in the autumn of 1807. Within hours of their arrival, however, the father had met a violent death, and the boy was left with all memory gone of his past life. Adopted and raised by old Kate Makepeace, Roddy found his closest companions in Hal Roystan and Mary Ellen Lee. These three stand at the heart of a richly eventful narrative that spans the first half of the nineteenth century, their lives lastingly intertwined by the inexorable demands of a strange and somewhat cruel destiny. A DINNER OF HERBS displays outstandingly Catherine Cookson's true storyteller's gift.

As a diversion from his job in his uncle's carpentry shop, newly arrived Robert Bradley began to explore the Durham countryside. It was on one of these walks that he met Millie, the ethereal girl-child whose odd ways and nocturnal wanderings had led her to be known locally as Thorman's Moth.

Davie watched as his master, McBain, thrashed Molly for refusing to name the man who had dishonoured her. And yet, not an hour later, Davie saw the two of them alone in the malthouse, and Molly was acting like a whore on market day. In a whirl of disbelieving rage, he overheard McBain's plan - to let him, Davie, take the blame and marry Molly.

Strugglng for survival in the poverty-stricken Fifteen Streets, John O'Brien fights to be part of a world he is rarely allowed to glimpse when he meets and falls in love with Mary Llewellyn.

The Broadhursts were a mining family and, to outsiders, they appeared to be happy, loyal and united. But it was Jinny - wife, mother, sister - who held them together. Her pride and her strength prevented their fears and hates from overwhelming them. There was Jack, her younger son, trapped into marrying a shrew; and Lottie, her sister, who was not quite...normal. And there was Larry, the bright one, the handsome one, who was obsessed with the memory of the girl who had jilted him. She was married now, they said, and happily too. But now he was suffused with anger, together with pain and a reborn longing. He vowed she would not make a laughing-stock of him again. But could he do what his pride told him he must...?

The woman who presented herself at the offices of the respectable firm of London solicitors was, the receptionist decided, clearly a vagrant who had been sleeping on the streets. The clothes that hung on her frail body were filthy, and she seemed unable to speak. When she asked to see the firm's senior partner, Alexander Armstrong, she was at first shown the door - but then the entire office staff were disrupted by Mr Armstrong's reaction when he learned his visitor's name - clearly Irene Baindor was a woman with a past, and her emergence from obscurity was to signal the unravelling of a mystery that had baffled the lawyer for twenty-six years.What Irene - the silent lady of the title - had been doing, and where she had been, gradually emerged over the following weeks as Armstrong met the unlikely benefactors who had befriended her and helped her to build a useful and satisfying life in a sheltered environment. Now, at last, she was able to confront her tortured and violent past and find great happiness and contentment with the help of old friends and some newer ones.

It had never been the best of marriages and over recent years it had become effectively a marriage in name and outward appearance only. Yet, in the autumn of 1960, Winifred and Daniel Coulson presented an acceptable fa�ade to the outside world, for Daniel had prospered sufficiently to allow them to live at Wearcill House, a mansion situated in the most favoured outskirt of the Tyneside town of Fellburn. Of their children, it was Donald on whom Winifred doted to the point of obsession, and now he was to be married, Winifred's prime concern was whether Donald was entering wedlock with an unbesmirched purity of body and spirit, for amidst the strange workings of her mind much earlier conceptions of morality and the teachings of the Church held sway. There was something potentially explosive just below the surface of life at Wearcill House, but when that explosion came it was in a totally unforseeable and devastating form, plunging the Coulsons into an excoriating series of crises out of which would come both good and evil, as well as the true significance of The Year of the Virgins.

Tilly Trotter had married Matthew Sopwith and sailed with him for Texas and a new life. Less than three years later she returns home, a young widow convinced that she will never love another man. Tilly finds that life still has a great deal in store for her, good and ill alike.

Close to her fifteenth birthday, Jinnie Howlett, a reluctant inmate of a northern workhouse, was offered a position as a maid-of-all-work by the Shalemans at Tollet's Ridge Farm, a bleakly isolated farm near the Cumbrian border. Before long, However, she was to discover she had exchanged one kind of drudgery for another, for the Shalemans--Rose, invalid wife of Pug and mother to Bruce and Hal--demanded much of her. If it had not been for Bruce's willingness to defend her against the brutish Pug and Hal, she would have gladly returned to the workhouse. Then she became acquainted with Richard Baxton-Powell, but eventually his over-familiarity made her realise that despite everything her future would owe more to the Shalemans than any outside influence. THE TINKER'S GIRL explores the life and fortunes of a spirited girl who lived in an age when it was customary for servants to know their place. With its brilliant evocation of the period, it will be hugely enjoyed by Catherine Cookson's millions of readers throughout the world.

'You're a loser; you were born a loser.' Was that the whole truth about Charlie MacFell? Was he just the kind of nice chap who always takes the dirty end of the stick, lacking the inner strength to take a firm stand in life or love alike? In one of the most powerful and distinctive novels that this author has written, Catherine Cookson brilliantly portrays a man in search of himself and tells a story of exceptional dramatic force which carries the reader from the rural Northumberland of Edwardian times into the holocaust of the Western Front in the First World War. And at the root of the matter is the cinder path of Charlie's boyhood home; a place of harsh associations that would come to symbolise the struggle with destiny itself. 'No fan should be without it' Good Book Guide

Het ongehuwd samenwonen van een man en een vrouw zorgt voor de nodige opschudding in een klein Engels dorp rond 1880.

Bill Bailey, the rugged Liverpudlian, was now a fully-fledged Tyneside building contractor, as staunchly loyal to his squad of workmen as they were to him. He had also met and married Fiona, a young widow with her own loveable family, to which she and Bill shortly added with the adoption of the orphaned Mamie.Life was good, but the economic climate was growing distinctly cloudy, and it was vital that Bill land the contract of a major development scheme. Competition was fierce, and when his men came under attack, Bill was sure that someone was out to spoil their chances for the job.Meanwhile, there were ructions on the domestic front. One of their children, Willie, acquired a new friend, Sammy Love, and although Fiona had grave doubts about this formidable lad and his colourful language, it was Sammy – and his father – who would make a vital contribution to the lives and fortunes of Bill Bailey’s lot.This is a novel that conveys much warmth with the well-drawn characters of Bill Bailey and the captivating Sammy Love.

Bill and Fiona Bailey are eagerly awaiting the arival of their first child... Catherine Cookson uses her unique gifts to splendid effect in this heartwarming story.

There would be times when Riah Millican came to regret that her husband had learned to read and write, and then shared his knowledge with her and their children.  For this was Durham in the 1830's, when employers tended to regard the spread of education with suspicion.  But now Seth Millican was dead and she was a widow with the need to find a home and a living for herself and her children. The chance of becoming a housekeeper didn't work out, but it led to Moor House and a scholarly recluse obsessed with that very book learning that could open so many doors and yet create so many problems; especially with her daughter, Biddy, who was not only bright, but witful... THE BLACK VELVET GOWN is the story of a mother and daughter, often at odds with each other, facing the need to challenge and fight the prejudice of an age--a narrative of great power and diversity that is one of Catherine Cookson's major achievements.