It had never been the best of marriages. There was something potentially explosive just below the surface of life at Wearcill House, but when that explosion came it was in a totally unforeseeable and devastating form, plunging the Coulsons into an excoriating series of crises out of which would come[...]

Emma Funnell is the matriarch of Bramble House, built for her as a wedding gift. Now, in 1968, she is in her seventies, with the avowed intent of living to be a hundred. And, as she has always done, she continues to rule the roost, for apart from herself three generations of the Funnell family live [...]

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 [...]

Even in the heat of battle, Geoff Fulton, a professional soldier, would always carry with him the memory of the night he was on leave, when his timely intervention rescued fourteen-year-old Lizzie from the oldest of perils for a young girl, and thereby began to change her life. Lizzie came from a d[...]

When 15-year-old Cissie Brodie loses her parents to cholera, she is forced out of the family cottage and left to raise her 9 siblings alone. Although desperately poor, the strong-willed Cissie determines to build a new home for the Brodies. It is only a rough stone shelter, but to Cissie and her fam[...]

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 t[...]

Catherine Cookson explores the relationship between a young man and an older woman. Riley, who left school with scant education, is invited to work with a theatre and it is here that he meets the leading lady, Nyrene Forbes-Mason.[...]

Fourteen-year-old Marie Anne Lawson, fleeing from something she could not bear to see, fell and broke her ankle. She was discovered by a local man, known as "the branded man" because of a disfigurement. This is the story of two women and the mysterious man who was to influence both their lives.[...]

Only after returning from his funeral did Fiona Bailey realize how much she would miss Davey. Towards the end of his life she had discovered qualities about him she had previously overlooked. Now Fiona and her husband must look after Davey's son, Sammy, who may not find it easy to settle in.[...]

Set in the aftermath of the Second World War, this book encompasses the social change taking place and the pains and pleasures of the brave new world of peace.[...]

KATE HANNIGAN Dr Rodney Prince had never seen a girl who looked more out o place in the grime and squalor of the Fifteen Streets than did Kate Hannigan. He knew she had suffered at the hands of men: Tim Hannigan, her 'father' was a vicious bully; John Herrington, a smooth-talking seducer, had left [...]

ROONEY He was the only one of the dustbin gang who was as yet unmarried. He'd worked for the Corporation as a dustman for fifteen of his thirty-five years, and his mates all agreed he was too canny to be caught, having avoided four widows and two spinsters in ten years. Rooney liked life to follow[...]

This collection of poems draws on many themes that should be familiar to the readers of Catherine Cookson's novels: love, work, class and the beauty of nature. She also shares more personal thoughts, reflections on her own writing, marriage to her beloved Tom and life in the north of England. From t[...]