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Catherine Cookson Message Board 5/19/2009 10:29:27 AM
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Cookson has written!

Author Cookson's Book Reviews

Colour Blind
Colour Blind is the story a child of mixed parentage being brought up in Newcastle, England and the struggles and prejudices she has to endure. The story opens before the main character is born. It is 1915 in Newcastle, England - the coal capital of the world. Bridget McQueen has sent a letter home to her parents to say that she will be coming to tea that afternoon to introduce her new husband to the family. Bridget's brother, Matt, is angry that his ...
Kate Hannigan
Simon & Schuster, Jan 2004, 25.00, 304 pp. ISBN: 0743237730 At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Fifteen Streets are filled with the hopeless poor with no expectations to escape the foulness of these slums. In this enervating world, an energetic innocent like Kate Hannigan has no chance for survival. To escape her abusive father, teenage Kate listened to the sweet con of John Herrington. When she becomes pregnant he drops her as yest...
Kate Hannigan's Girl
Simon & Schuster, Feb 2001, 24.00, 288 pp. ISBN: 0743212525 In the early twentieth century in the English countryside, Annie Hannigan knows regardless of what happens in her life, she will never forget her impoverish early childhood. Her mother Kate, now married and respectable, was not so when Annie was illegitimately born in the worst of the slums. Life is materially better due mostly because of Kate's caring spouse. When Terence M...
Our Kate, An Autobiography
Catherine Cookson, prolific novelist who died in 1998 at the age of 92 wrote this autobiography in 1968. The "Our Kate" of the title is her mother. Cookson found out when she was 6 that her mother wasn't her sister as she been brought up to believe, and that she was illegitimate. She describes the hardships of her childhood growing up in extreme poverty in the industrial northeast of England. The harsh judgement of her family and community for having...

Cookson booklist

Silent Lady
Simon & Schuster, Feb 2002, 352 pp. ISBN: 0743227611 In 1955 London, a woman in tattered clothing arrives at the law firm of Alexander Armstrong & Son. The receptionist starts to toss the vagrant out, but hesitates when the woman mentions Mr. Armstrong by name and says she is Mrs. Baindor. The receptionist still has doubts, but informs a higher up who informs Alexander. Upon hearing the name, a stunned Alexander races out of his office to ...
The Black Candle
As the story begins, Bridget Mordaunt has inherited a blacking factory and a candle factory from her father. Contrary to the typical young Victorian woman, she decides to run the factories herself. An overseer in the blacking factory, Joe Skinner, is accused of killing his brother. Bridget has always liked Joe and doesn't believe he could have done it. However all the evidence seems to point to him, and he will say nothing to defend himself. When he ...
The Black Velvet Gown
A young mother finds herself alone and unable to raise her family so she must move to an almost forgotten town to be a housekeeper for a desolate man. The man, being a former professor, decides to tutor her children. Her oldest daughter finds joy in learning and soon becames the man's prize pupil. After years of this life, the man is in an accident which later claims his life. He leaves a surprising request in his will that sends the daughter out to ...
The Dwelling Place
The Dwelling Place is a story of a destitute young girl's struggle to take care of her younger siblings after her parents die of cholera. Cissie Brodie lives in Country Durham, England in the 1830's. She is a young girl of great strength and determination. When her parents die from cholera, she is determined that her younger siblings will not be taken to the work house. When the family are evicted from their farm cottage, Cissie remembers seeing a lar...
The Fifteen Streets (Romance)
Simon & Schuster, Dec 2002, %25.00, 224 pp. ISBN: 0743236785 THE FIFTEEN STREETS are slums filled with abject poverty that usually leads to its residents giving up on the future as the hard work destroys the dreams and hopes for something better if not for themselves at least for their offsprings. A drunk sired John O'Brien, yet the lad once believed that hard work was the avenue out. However, his toil on the docks has left him with deep doubts...
The Fifteen Streets (Literature)
The O'Brien's lived in a mining community and were constantly trying to better themselves and keep from going into a state of poverty which was common in their neighbourhood. The son John fell in love with a young woman who was far above himself in social and economic standing. This is a wonderfully told story of social and economic struggles. Although the theme was typical of the place and time, the story is well told and the authour knows her subjec...

Catherine Cookson list of books

The Glass Virgin
The Glass Virgin is about the struggle of the heroine, Annabella LeGrange, to come to terms with the realization that her parents are not actually her biological parents and her struggle to survive. Annabella LeGrange is a seven year old only child who has been brought up in a grand manor house in the north of England. She is isolated from the rest of the world but seems content to be loved by her parents and waited on by the staff of the house. She als...
The Menagerie
Jinny Broadhurst has a large family of adult children and a sister who is mildly mentally challenged. Trying to keep her large extended family on the straight and narrow path of normality is sometimes more than Jinny can handle. Her sister, Lottie is innocently outlandish and has a little girl quality about her that makes everyone love and protect her. Jinny's house sometimes does seem like a menagerie especially when her favoured son Larry tries to f...
The Moth
Robert Bradley is an educated carpenter from Jarrow who, after his father dies, goes to live with his uncle in the country, where he meets and falls in love with the lady of the manor, Agnes Thorman. Robert Bradley works at the shipyard in Jarrow, where he has learned of social injustices in life and does not agree with them. Robert loves to read and educate himself. His Uncle John, his Aunt and his cousin, Carrie come to his father's funeral and he is...
The Rag Nymph
The Rag Nymph is about an orphan's struggle to remain chaste in the slums of mid-nineteenth century Newcastle, where prostitution is often the only way to survive. The setting is Newcastle, England in 1854. Laura Forester is trying to look after her and her nine year old daughter, Millie. The only way she can make any money and prevent them both from going to the workhouse, is through prostitution. Laura is caught by the police and jailed. Millie is ...
The Round Tower
The Round Tower tells the story of the difficult relationship between Vanessa Ratcliffe, the daughter of a wealthy factory owner, and Angus Cotton, who is a working class man. Vanessa Ratcliffe is a 16 year old convent girl who lives in a large house in a good area in the north of England. Her father, Jonathan Ratcliffe owns a local factory called Affleck and Tate. He is a pompous, hard man, whose only interest in life is money and trying to marry his ...
The Silent Lady
This is the story of a woman who ran away from her matrimonial home to escape her husband's violent behavior. Mrs. Irene Baindor ran away from her comfortable home after her husband gave her a beating, which left her with mental problems. She left her son behind and lived in the streets for days before she came across Bella's house. Bella was a kind woman who had other people in her custody. The arrival of Irene in the house changed everything, despite...