Catherine Cookson lived in Northumberland, England, the setting of many of her international bestsellers. Born in Tyne Dock, she was the illegitimate daughter of an impoverished woman, Kate, whom she was raised to believe was her older sister. She began to work in the civil service but eventually moved south to Hastings, where she met and married a local grammar school master. Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer, in 1968 her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award, her readership quickly spread worldwide, and her many bestselling novels established her as one of the most popular contemporary authors. After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998, having completed 104 works.
"Catherine Cookson's novels are about hardship, the intractability
of life and of individuals, the struggle first to survive and next
to make sense of one's survival. Humour, toughness, resolution, and
generosity are Cookson virtues, in a world which she often depicts
as cold and violent. Her novels are weighted and driven by her own
early experiences of illegitimacy and poverty. This is what gives
them power. In the specialised world of women's popular fiction,
Cookson has created her own territory." -- Helen Dunmore, "The
Times" (London)
"Whenever the desire for entertaining fiction must be quenched, a
Catherine Cookson novel...should prove an excellent resource." --
"The Philadelphia Inquirer"
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