Catherine Cookson

From the moment Bill Bailey arrived to take up residence at Fiona Nelson’s home in the Tyneside town of Fellburn, he made his presence felt in no uncertain terms. He might be outwardly ordinary enough, but he appeared to possess some extraordinary qualities, which proved to have a great and lasting effect on the future lives of Fiona and her young family.  Book 1 of series.

Bill and Fiona Bailey are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first child. Book 3 of series.

For Bill Bailey, now a fully-fledged Tyneside building contractor, life is good. But it is vital that Bill land the contract of a major development scheme. Competition is fierce, and when his men come under attack, Bill is sure that someone is out to spoil their chances for the job.  Book 2 of series.

Bridget inherited her father's business at the age of nineteen, and by the time she was twenty-three in 1880, she was running them as confidently as any man. So a pattern began to form that would shape the lives of generations to come, yet the path destiny required her to follow was not an easy one.

Riah Millican came to regret that her husband had learned to read and write, and then shared his knowledge with her and their children. For this was Durham in the 1830’s, when employers regarded the spread of education with suspicion. But now Seth was dead and she needed to find a home and a living. Her new job as a housekeeper in Moor House with a scholarly recluse, started a chain reaction that should have opened many doors to her future but instead created many problems.

Continuing the fortunes of the Bailey family. Fiona relies more than ever on her husband, Bill, for support - a rock of a man with a rough tongue but a heart of gold. Sequel to 'Bill Bailey's Daughter' (2876)

Brid Stevens usually met Joe Lloyd at a weekly dance, but today she was excitedly up at dawn to meet Joe on Stockwell Hill, where they could watch the sun rise over the sea. Who could predict that such a perfect start would end with tragedy?

Set at the turn of the century in Northumberland and London, this is the gripping story of fourteen-year-old Marie Anne Lawson, youngest daughter of a prosperous Northumbrian family - and of the mysterious 'branded' man, who was to influence both their lives to an extent that neither of them could have imagined.

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...

In 1880's Felburn money is tight, so when farmer Hector Stewart marries wealthy Maria Connelly, his son, Daniel, guesses the real reason for the union. But when Maria loses her wealth the shockwave is felt throughout the Stewart family.

Mary Ann is being sent to a Convent school for the education which will help her escape from poverty.  Book 3 of series.

Roddy Greenbank was brought by his father to the remote Northumberland community of Langley in the autumn of 1807. However, when his father meets a violent death Roddy is adopted and raised by old Kate Makepeace. Roddy befriends Hal Roystan and Mary Ellen Lee, and these three find their lives lastingly intertwined by the inexorable demands of a strange and somewhat cruel destiny.

When fifteen-year-old Cissie Brodie loses her parents to cholera, she is forced out of the family cottage and left to raise her nine siblings alone. Although desperately poor, Cissie determines to build a new home for the Brodies. It is only a rough stone shelter, but to Cissie and her family it is enough to keep them from the workhouse. But can love, when it arrives, teach Cissie not to fear the world beyond the dwelling place?

Every once in a while, circumstance traps a group of people in a pattern of tragedy and violence from which they struggle vainly to fight free. Thus it was with the Master of Cock Shield Farm, Angus McBain, a man too easily tempted to sin, and those in and around his household.

Rory Connor was a gambling man and he had a gambler's luck. At seven years old he was earning money from odd jobs and by the time he was twenty-three, his ambition was in full flow and he was always looking to bigger and better games to play. For an ordinary working lad, he was doing well - until one day, his luck changed and suddenly, things did not go as smoothly as he was used to...

Grace Rouse, a normal and beautiful young woman, is forced to recognise that her marriage is a sham after two years as the wife of a country parson. She turns from the husband she has tried in vain to love to the comfort and release offered by another man.

Her name was Hannah Boyle, to the people of the village she would always be "The Girl". As the waif grew to beautiful womanhood, she became an object of desire to the local young men, including her half-brother.But it was the devil-may-care horse-dealer Ned Ridley, who taught her the meaning of love and passion.

Annabella LaGrange was the only child of a wealthy family, owners of a glassworks in the North-East of England. When she is seventeen, Annabella learns something so shocking about her past that she flees her childhood home and is forced to embark upon a new existence with an invented past. Suddenly she must unlearn everything she has been taught about class and love.

It began with a straw hat, presented to Emily by her friend and employer, Mable Arkwright, milliner and modiste, who eventually left her the business. It was a prelude to a series of events which would influence the destiny of her children and grandchildren through the first world war.

Freed at last from a disastrous marriage, Maisie had become a bestselling author with her first book - about Hamilton, the remarkable horse who existed only in her imagination, and was her guide, philosopher and friend.  Book 2 of series.

"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, she is in fact a one-man army, armoured with faith and possessed of formidable qualities.  Book 1 of series.

Maisie doesn't understand why her mother can't love her, but she knows that her life is deeply unhappy. When her stepfather George, leaves, Maisie has no protector, until she begins to escape into her own imagination. She first meets Hamilton as a lonely seven year old, but he has to remain a secret, for what would people think if she reveals her only friend is an imaginary horse?  Book 1 of series.

Proud, canny and ambitious, Hannah Massey is a born ruler. Her kingdom may be only a working-class household in County Durham, but within its walls her iron will governs a predominantly male family and her word is unchallengeable law. Now, in late middle age, her ambition is yet to be satisfied. She wants to see her brood living in the house where she was in service as a young girl.

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 bestselling author. In this engaging sequel, Hamilton has vanished from Maisie's life and two human companions take his place. In the days of mourning that follow the death of her beloved second husband Nardy, Maisie takes comfort and joy in the company of the cheerful, bright-eyed little cockney boy called Harold.  Book 3 of series.

Now, a year later, she decides to adopt him, and begins to find happiness once more and rarely needs to escape from reality into her imagination. She is even beginning to hope that true love could strike twice. But life is never simple and an unexpected friendship with a curious man could leave Maisie in grave danger...

Young Freddie Musgrove was never more agile than when navigating his sculler across the waters of the Tyne. The shillings he picked up running messages and smuggled goods, helped to feed his family amidst the endless battle for survival in 1843. But after he witnesses a scene of unremitting horror at The Towers, his silence is bought, and years later, when the horror reoccurs, Freddie must fight to remain uninvolved.

When Matthew is invalided out of the army at the end of World War Two, his family is sympathetic but they have their problems. The only person he can relate to is his nurse, Liz.

Best known as a novelist, Catherine Cookson also wrote poetry throughout her life. This anthology offers her unique perspective on life.

When Joe Remington brought his new bride to Fell Rise, he sensed she might not settle easily into his home in the Tyneside town of Fellburn. For this was 1926, the year of the General Strike, the effects of which would nowhere be felt more acutely than in the North-East. Then when Elaine became pregnant, she saw it as a disaster, but in the long run, would it widen the rift between husband and wife, or would it help to bring about a reconciliation?

Sequel to 'Kate Hannigan' (905). Written fifty years after the first book, this is set in the 1920's and finds Kate happily married to Dr Rodney Prince, but spiteful rumours about her past threaten her happiness.

As the daughter of a mining family, Katie Mulholland is forced to find work as a scullery maid in the house of the Rosiers. But the beautiful young girl soon captures the eye of her employer’s evil son, who rapes her and leaves her pregnant. But Katie’s fate changes course when one man offers her the opportunity to make her own fortune, and to discover real love . . .

When Alison's guardian, an experienced antique dealer, asked her to value the contents of Beacon Ride, his long concealed secret is exposed.

Seventeen year old Mary Ann has to grow up quickly as her first love, Corny Boyle, leaves for America.  Book 5 of series.

Dr Paul Higgins and his wife Bett have allowed a bitter gulf to grow between them. Loyally supporting them both is cousin Jenny but she must also find some happiness for herself.

Mary Ann hopes for great results from her father in his new job.  Book 2 of series.

As Mary Ann began to learn about the feelings of adults, so could she see that the more they loved someone, the more they could hurt and be hurt. And it wasn’t just grown-ups who felt this way either...  Book 4 of series.

When she asked Christopher Taggart to marry her, Maggie's two main desires in life were a child she could love and one of those big houses on Brampton Hill. She meant to have them all, despite the scorn of some folk, who thought they knew what she deserved better than she did herself!