Books with author Catherine Cookson

Catherine Cookson was one of the world's most beloved writers. Her books have sold millions of copies, and her characters and their stories have captured the imagination of readers around the globe. She passed away in 1998, but luckily for her fans, Cookson left behind several unpublished novels, among them the compelling Silent Lady.The story begins with a shocking revelation, delivered by a disheveled woman who presents herself at the offices of a respectable law firm in London. At first the receptionist suspects this mysterious woman is a vagrant; the clothes that hang on her frail body are filthy, and she seems unable to speak. When the woman requests to see the firm's senior partner, Alexander Armstrong, she is shown the door -- but when Mr. Armstrong learns the name of his visitor, all the office staff is amazed by his reaction. For Irene Baindor is a woman with a past, and her emergence from obscurity signals the unraveling of a mystery that had baffled the lawyer for twenty-six years.To those around her, Irene Baindor had been a young woman of class and musical talent, the wife of a wealthy and powerful man, and the mother to a beloved baby boy. But behind closed doors she was a woman with a dangerous husband, a husband who would one day act with such cruelty that Irene would be left without most of her voice and memory. It was then that Irene disappeared. What Irene had been doing, and where she had been, gradually emerges over the following weeks, as the unlikely benefactors who had befriended her step forward to reveal the remarkable life she has led.Fans of Cookson's novels, with their larger themes of romantic love and class conflict, will be delighted by the mystery and surprise of The Silent Lady. Drawing from her own firsthand experience of working-class life between two world wars and in the 1950s, Cookson once again displays the irresistible plotting, scene-setting, and characterization that have made her an icon of historical and romance fiction.

‘The child was bright, the voice on the phone had said; and quite normal…’ Why had they said that? They were holding something back. He had felt it from the very first. Was she a cripple, he had asked? No, the voice had said, she wasn’t a cripple. It had something that sounded like a handicap, then it had ceased abruptly. This was the gist of the telephone conversation in which Joe Dodd agreed to take in a granddaughter he had never seen – just for the school holidays.Nine-year-old Bella was blind and had had a hard life alone with a drunken father whom her grandfather had eventually refused to treat as his son. Now she was coming to her grandfather almost without warning – and he hated women – all women. She had to learn about her new surroundings and about her grandfather. She also had to get to know John Thompson, an older boy who had been asked to ‘help’ her. Bella did not want to be helped; she wanted to be accepted as herself, clever, forthright, brave and loving – a person, not an encumbrance.In all her trials the thing that most sustained her was the memory of her friend, Mrs. Golightly, and the pungent wit for which that lady was renowned. Soon Bella was to need every scrap of help those memories could give, for out of the blue came real danger for her, for John and for a most important stranger.

The Nipper’s been sold for a pit pony!’Losing both his job and his home when the small farm he lives on is sold, fifteen-year-old Sandy is horrified when his much-loved young pony, the Nipper, is sold as a pit pony, destined to spend the rest of his life hauling coal underground, unlikely ever to see daylight or have fresh grass again. Desperate to share his pony’s misfortunes, Sandy impulsively follows him down into the mines – into a world of back breaking labour amidst squalid conditions.But trouble is brewing and as the miners’ talk turns to strikes and violence threatens, Sandy finds himself caught up in a dangerous race against time – a race in which he is to need every ounce of the courage and strength that his gallant-hearted pony, The Nipper, can give…The Nipper is a gripping tale of loyalty and determination, set against the harsh background of life in a north-eastern mining area in the early 1800s.

What with trouble at home between his parents, and trouble with a bully at the Tyneside shipyard where he works, life is pretty bleak for fifteen-year-old Joe Darling. Then an unlikely friendship with an old rag-and-bone man, Mr Prodhurst, leads him into the greatest challenge of his life. For Mr Prodhurst bequeaths his peculiar-looking horse, The Gladiator, to Joe – with only enough money for the first few weeks’ feed! How can Joe possibly look after the horse properly? He is determined to try. For otherwise, The Gladiator will have to be put down…

Setting off on holiday aboard a borrowed cabin cruiser, The Mary Ann Shaughnessy, the brothers Jonathan and Malcolm Crawford and their friend Joe argue in vain against taking the family’s battle-scarred and troublesome bull terrier with them. Bill, due in court soon over an unfortunate ‘misunderstanding’ with the postman, is sure to cause them problems.But the boys are very glad to have Bill on board when they sail right into an adventure – one in which their very lives are to depend on the plucky dog’s courage and spirit.

There were plenty of shocks in store for young Eddie Morley when he and his sister went to stay at Old Granny Flannagan’s. He is very quickly caught up in some very strange happenings indeed. When Eddie’s grandfather suddenly disappears, not only does he and Granny Flannagan learn to understand each other much better, but he is plunged headfirst into an exciting adventure and a desperate attempt to halt an evil trade…This is an adventure rich with the tangy flavour of life filled with racy, believable characters and set in a recognisable world of hard work, danger, bravado and cool courage.