One of the most popular writers of the 20th century, Catherine Cookson's story is as dramatic as any of her novels. Born in 1906, the illegitimate daughter of a domestic servant, she was brought up in Tyneside in one of the poorest communities of the western world. Her mother once begged barefoot from door to door and they lived in constant fear of the workhouse. But Catherine was determined to escape her situation and did so with enormous courage and energy, making her her way out of the slums of her childhood. After a ...
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One of the most popular writers of the 20th century, Catherine Cookson's story is as dramatic as any of her novels. Born in 1906, the illegitimate daughter of a domestic servant, she was brought up in Tyneside in one of the poorest communities of the western world. Her mother once begged barefoot from door to door and they lived in constant fear of the workhouse. But Catherine was determined to escape her situation and did so with enormous courage and energy, making her her way out of the slums of her childhood. After a tragic series of stillbirths and miscarriages, she attempted to "write it all out". All of her 97 novels are still in print. But the damage she suffered as a child left Cookson vulnerable and her health precarious. In this biography, Kathleen Jones has delved into early drafts of Cookson's own autobiography, and has also used as background the hours of privately taped conversation in which Cookson discusses much that she chose to keep secret in her own lifetime: her tortured feelings for her mother, her own mental torment and terrors, and her intense and devastating relationship with Nan Smith, who almost succeeded in wrecking Catherine's marriage.
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Seller's Description:
Very good in Very good jacket. VGC. BCA edition by arrangement with Constable & Co, 1999. Black hardback(gilt lettering to the spine) with Dj(small crease and nick on the Dj cover), both in VGC. Illustrated with b/w photos. Nice and clean pages with a small nick on the edges, inscription written inside the back cover. Nice and clean book.353pp including List of illustrations, notes and sources, bibliography, index. BCA edition. This is another paragraph Review: With a life as inherently dramatic as that of any of her heroines, novelist Catherine Cookson is the perfect subject for a biography. The facts are astonishing, giving substance to the accepted wisdom that life is often stranger than fiction. Born and brought up in domestic service in Tyneside, the young Cookson was shocked to discover that the woman she had accepted as her sister was in fact her mother, the disgrace of illegitimacy necessitating duplicity. Growing up in abject poverty, surrounded by relatives who either drank or simply sunk into despondency, Cookson was starved of any creative outlet but determined to break free of the dismal destiny that seemed to await her. By her early 20s, by dint of sheer industry, she had gained financial independence and within two decades was well on the way to becoming a successful writer. Jones is a sympathetic, eminently fair biographer, and has written a compulsively readable study of a remarkable, contradictory woman; indeed the book carries the same sort of narrative momentum to be found in the best of Cookson's fiction.
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Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading. Damaged cover. The cover of is slightly damaged for instance a torn or bent corner.
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Good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
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Good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
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Seller's Description:
Good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
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Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading.
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