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Even as a child Barbara was beautiful, but as her beauty grew so did the affliction which shadowed it. She was becoming deaf. Yet living in an almost silent world protected her from what could be a worse affliction - to know the truth of her own origins. Barbara had another protector in Anna Brigmore, who knew that truth and was haunted by the thought it must one day be revealed to this girl she cherished like her own child. And among the surrounding hills and valleys of Northumberland, it was a long-relished scandal....

Ever since her mother died, Martha Mary had had to take over the running of her home, a sprawling mansion called The Habitation. She did everything she could to make ends meet, but could not understand why they were in such financial straits - especially as when her mother was alive, they had several profitable businesses. She hoped that her father's frequent visits to Great-Uncle James would finally come good when he died, and they could sell his house to alleviate their great need of money.

Set against the Northumbrian coast in the 1960s, the events of this love story take place over one day: a day during which everyone involved discovers that the consequences of an innocent meeting are far more significant than the event itself.

When Cissie Brody was 15, fever swept the English countryside, killing her parents and leaving her to care for her nine younger siblings. Rejecting the offers of town officials to care for the children in the workhouse, Cissie is determined to keep the family together and moves them to a cave-like dwelling place on the Fells.

In the mid-1850s, life for an orphan was grim, as Kirsten MacGregor discovered when her parents died suddenly on a journey to Northumberland, leaving her penniless and alone in the hands of a cruel farmer. Somehow, Kirsten survived her terrible childhood - only to be sold, at the age of 14, to a travelling tinker - a vicious man who held her captive until the fateful day they were separated during a storm. Rescued from the flood by the Flynn family, she gave birth to a child as the waters raged about her.

Gravedigger John Gascoigne lives in Downfell Hurst with his wife, Florrie, their three children and his mother, Gran. John is a deep thinker but extremely taciturn - a man of few words and many grunts. Which is why everyone is alarmed when he's hit on the head by a cricket ball, and it suddenly seems as if the words won't stop. What's more, he says he is talking to Saint Christopher - only no one else can see the saint, and they're beginning to worry John's not quite right in the head.

The Broadhursts were a mining family and, to outsiders, they appeared to be happy, loyal and united. But it was Jinny—wife, mother, sister—who held them together. Her pride and her strength prevented their fears and hates from overwhelming them. There was Jack, her younger son, trapped into marrying a shrew; and Lottie, her sister, who was not quite...normal. And there was Larry, the bright one, the handsome one, who was obsessed with the memory of the girl who had jilted him.

The cinder path which led from the Northumberland farmhouse would always symbolise defeat for Charlie MacFell. People saw him as a born loser who always got the dirty end of the stick. At the root of the matter were boyhood humiliations by his brutal father - but was that all there was to Charlie MacFell Then an opportunity emerges for Charlie to display his inner strengths and integrity, and to give the lie to those who had thought him to be of no account.

Tilly Trotter has devotedly served Mark Sopwith at Highfield Manor for twelve years. She is his wife in all but name. Theirs is a scandalous yet happy arrangement. But when Mark dies, Tilly is left pregnant with his illegitimate child. Cast out of the manor house by Mark's spiteful grown-up daughter, Tilly is forced to face the prejudices of the local village. No stranger to hardship, she makes do as best she can, but when a villager's vicious attack leaves her baby son, Willy, half blinded, she knows that it is time to leave her native Tyneside.

The Batleys and the Caldwells owned neighbouring farms on the beautiful, wild Northumbrian coast. But there all similarity ended, and enmity began. For between the two families raged a violent and bitter feud. Into this stormy atmosphere came Linda Metcalfe, an agricultural student, who became involved in the tensions between the two households on her arrival. Employed by Ralph Batley, Linda soon found herself unwittingly a part of the feud, and began to feel a strange admiration for Ralph, who made it painfully clear that he didn't need her on the farm or in his life.

When Kate Mitchell was offered the job of part-time secretary at Tor-Fret, a lonely old house on the Northumberland fells, she had no idea that the household was composed only of men. Her employer, Maurice Rossiter, an embittered victim of polio, was subject to alternate fits of temper and depression. Even so, Kate found it difficult to understand his peculiar hatred of his elder brother Logan, on whose charity Maurice was obliged to depend. But when she accidentally stumbled upon Maurice with Logan's fiancée, she became aware of some of the secrets of Tor-Fret.

Known for the wit of her writing, Catherine Cookson was the UK's most widely read novelist during her lifetime. When her Estate discovered this never-before-published memoir in the attic of her home, it was an astonishing find. Before I Go is the definitive story of her life, in the author's own candid words.

Catherine Cookson's well-loved novels Hamilton and Goodbye Hamilton tell the story of Maisie, who invented an imaginary horse to keep her company through the long years of an unhappy marriage and before she became a best-selling author. In this engaging sequel, Hamilton has vanished from Maisie’s life, and in the days after the death of her second husband she takes comfort from the company of a cheerful, bright-eyed little cockney boy named Harold. 

A story of mystery, love and revenge. Bridget Gether's parents were killed in the wartime blitz, so she had lived with the Overmeers at Balderstone, their sprawling property in the Northumbrian countryside, since she was a child. Unaware that she had been manipulated into agreeing to marry their son, Laurence, an encounter with Bruce Dickenson, the son of a neighbouring farmer, opened her eyes to the possibility that she might be making a serious mistake.

When Fred Carpenter suggests to his wife, Sally, that they should take a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads, she is filled with trepidation. Nevertheless she summons her courage and they and their bull-terrier Bill set off, with Fred at the helm of Dogfish Three. Sally's misgivings are soon justified, as a series of disasters - human, nautical, and canine - threaten to ruin their holiday. Then everything changes as they make friends with the boating fraternity and encounter the remarkable 15-year-old Rosie, whose family history stirs their curiosity and sympathy.

Life on the Fifteen Streets was a continual struggle for survival. John O'Brien grew up in abject poverty, confined to the hardships of the Fifteen Streets. Labouring on the city's docks and trying to keep his loved ones safe from the drunken wrath of his father and brother, this is the only way of life he knows. Then John O'Brien meets his sister's teacher.

Rory Connor was a gambling man and he had a gambler's luck. From the day he was born, his mother had known that Rory would be the one to make something of his life. At seven years old he was earning money from odd jobs and by 14 he was in full-time work. By the time he was 19, he had escaped the factory to become a rent-collector. Now, at 23, ambition was in full flow and he was always looking to bigger and better games to play.

Voor de O’Briens is iedere dag een gevecht om te overleven. Mary Ellen en haar vijf kinderen wonen in de armoedige buitenwijken van een Engels mijnwerkersdorp. Ze staat er helemaal alleen voor, want haar man is verslaafd aan alcohol en regelmatig agressief. John, haar oudste zoon, werkt in de haven om het gezin te kunnen onderhouden. Hij is anders dan de meeste mannen in de buurt: Hij is gevoelig, slim en zijn moeders enige steun en toeverlaat.

Wie had ooit gedacht dat de strooien hoed met gouden glans haar hele leven zou veranderen? In het prachtige Victoriaanse Londen krijgt Emily de prachtige hoed cadeau van haar beste vriendin. Wanneer ze naar Nice reist voor vakantie, trekt het hoofddeksel de aandacht van de aantrekkelijke Paul, en Emily weet zijn hart te veroveren. Helaas is Paul niet de lieve man wie hij leek en verwoest Emilys leven, waar zelfs haar kinderen en kleinkinderen nog de gevolgen van kunnen merken. Hoe heeft de strooien hoed alles zo overhoop gehaald?

John O’Brienin elämä ei ole helppoa. John tekee pitkää päivää telakalla, jotta voi auttaa lapsuudenperhettään. Monet muut alueen työläisperheet ovat hirvittävän köyhiä, mutta O’Brienin perhe ei suostu kohtaalonsa. Johnin elämä muuttuu, kun hän tapaa nuoren opettajattaren Mary Llewellynin. Heidän rakkautensa edessä on kuitenkin esteitä. Hyväksyykö ympäröivä yhteiskunta työmiehen ja opettajattaren suhdetta? Vuonna 1952 julkaistu "Kadun kaunein tyttö" on yksi Catherine Cooksonin tunnetuimmista ja rakastetuimmista romaaneista.