 |  | | | Catherine Cookson Centenary | 28 June 2006 | | |
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Catherine Cookson, who has been described as Britain’s greatest romantic novelist.
During her lifetime Cookson wrote over 100 books, more than 100 million copies of her novels have been sold worldwide and they have been translated into over 20 languages. She wrote out of her own experience, particularly those novels set in her native north east which dealt with the poverty of the industrial working classes through the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born Kate McMullen in 1906, Catherine was the illegitimate child of an alcoholic mother and she started life as a laundry checker in a workhouse. But she was determined to rise up in the world and, through her writing, she became a millionaire many times over, eventually being made a Dame. She died in 1998 at the age of 91. So why are her novels still so popular and what is her legacy?
Jenni Murray talks to Cookson's biographer Piers Dudgeon and author Josephine Cox who is an admirer of Cookson's achievements.
The Girl From Leam Lane by Piers Dudgeon (revised edition of the biography of Catherine Cookson to mark the centenary of her birth), published by Headline. ISBN: 0-7553-1497-2
| |
| | Retired? Downsizing? Moving home to be nearer the kids?We'd like to hear your stories about moving house |
|
