Catherine Cookson Books

The year was 1851 and Rory McAlister was learning the wheelwright's trade in a small town in the north of England. At fifteen, Rory could think of no finer way of life than the one he led as Mr. Cornwall's apprentice. Mr. and Mrs. Cornwall treated him almost as a son. His own family lived nearby and he was able to visit them occasionaly and help them out with his wages. Everyone in the village had a friendly word for him. And -- especially -- there was Lily. But the simple pattern of Rory's life was suddenly shattered. Mr. Cornwallis was injured on the eve of his yearly journey to the West Country, where it was vblieved he went to visit his mother, and Rory was asked to make the journey in his place. But what was the mysterious Blue Baccy the Cornwallises had been discussing? "You'll remember this night for as long as you live, boy," said Mr. Cornwallis. And Rory would remember -- the Isle of Jersey, long night hours at sea, the sound of shots, the sight of death, the taste of fear. He would never forget the new truths revealed through his strange journey -- some of them difficult to accept -- about those he admired and trusted most. But above all he would learn what Blue Baccy was; what it meant to those who risked their lives for it -- and to his master and himself.

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 the needs of a desolate, unhappy man.

'Me da's a grand man!' Mary Ann Shaughnessy has spoken; question her who dare. For although Mary Ann may look quite an ordinary small girl from a dockland tenement, always hot in defense of a ne'er-do-well father, she is in fact a one-man army, armoured with faith and possessed of formidable qualities. Set on Tyneside, the part of the world which Catherine Cookson knew and understood so well, this heartwarming and humorously observed book skillfully weds an authentic and unsentimentalized background to the kind of fairytale story that we all like to believe could come true and which the Mary Ann Shaughnessys of this world know to be true. The moral of A Grand Man is simply that faith can move mountains, but the delight of the book lies in the telling and in the character of its heroine as she battles, connives, and bargains to get a better way of life for those she loves and especially for the 'grand man' himself. A Grand Man is the first of the Mary Ann stories and was made into a film, Jacqueline, in 1954.

Dr Rodney Prince has never seen a girl look more out of place in the grime of the Fifteen Streets than Kate Hannigan. Her beauty and intelligence far outshine that of his hard, brittle, calculating wife. And as their paths continue to cross, Rodney cannot fail to be drawn towards her. But as an unlikely romance blossoms, the union fuels vicious gossip amongst the denizens of the Fifteen Streets. For it is a love that opposes all the concepts of Edwardian society . . . Kate Hannigan is the partly autobiographical, enthralling story of a controversial love affair, from one of the most talented storytellers of the 20th century.

Born into grinding poverty, young Freddie Musgrave relies on his wits to survive and help feed his family. But the threats of the past won't stay buried and the dark events of that distant night have cast a long and dangerous shadow... Catherine Cookson was the original and bestselling saga writer, selling over 100 million copies of her novels.

Tilly Trotter isn't like the other girls in the villages of County Durham. Tall and coltish, she's not afraid of taking on 'man's work' to help out the grandparents who raised her. There's an unusual beauty to her too - a beauty that's envied by the local women and lusted after by the men.But for all the attention Tilly only loves one man, farmer Simon Bentwood, and she's heartbroken to discover that he's betrothed to another. But there are even harder times ahead for Tilly. A spurned suitor takes a terrible revenge. Idle gossip brands her a witch. A betrayal forces her into the cruel drudgery of the local mine and puts her life in danger. But Tilly refuses to let her spirit be broken - determined that all this will serve only to make her stronger...

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Rooney was 35 and the only one of the dustbin gang still unmarried, having avoided four widows and two spinsters. But it all went flying out of the window when he moved into Ma Howlett's place, where the rug of his comfortable old habits were yanked from under him, and life became complicated.

Fourteen-year-old Marie Anne Lawson, youngest daughter of a prosperous Northumbrian family, fleeing from something she couldn't bear to see, fell and broke her ankle. She was discovered by a local man who, because of a disfigurement, was known thereabouts as 'the bandedman'. Her mother impatiently awaited her recovery, for she had already planned to send her wayward daughter to London, where her Aunt Martha could encourage the child's natural talent for the piano. But Aunt Martha's regime was so harsh that only the friendship of her aunt's companion, Sara Foggerty, stopped Marie Anne from plunging into despair--that and the encouragement she received from her music tutor. Why, then, did his sudden disappearance make it necessary for her to return to Northumberland, this time into the care of her grandfather? Set at the turn of the century in Northumberland and London, THE BRANDED MAN is the gripping story of Marie Anne, Sarah Foggerty and the mysterious 'branded man', who was to influence both their lives to an extent that neither of them could have imagined. This, Catherine Cookson's eighty-fifth novel, is yet another example of her extraordinary talent for compulsive storytelling.

From British publishing phenomenon Catherine Cookson comes two beloved books--"Hamilton" and "Goodbye Hamilton"--now available in the United States for the first time and offered in one convenient volume.