Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, who Catherine believed was her older sister. Catherine began work in service but eventually moved south to Hastings, where she met and married Tom Cookson, a local grammar-school master. Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer - her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award for the best regional novel of 1968 - her readership quickly spread throughout the world, and her many best-selling novels established her as one of the most popular contemporary woman novelist. She received an OBE in 1985, was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993, and was appointed an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in 1997. For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne.
Series
Books
BILL BAILEY'S LOT
1987
The Cinder Path
1978
Katie Mulholland
1967
The Bondage of Love
1997
Matty Doolin
1965
THE IRON FACADE.
1965
Plainer Still
1995
The Dwelling Place
1971
Lanky Jones
1980
The Menagerie
1958
The Mallen Trilogy
1979
The Branded Man
1997
Catherine Cookson
3 Complete Novels
1988
The Lord and Mary Ann
1971
Justice Is A Woman
1994
The Blind Miller
1974
The Maltese Angel
1990
Saint Christopher and the Gravedigger
2017
The Whip
1982
The Silent Lady
2001
Bill Bailey
1986
The Love Child
1990
Kate Hannigan's Girl
2000
Mrs Flanagan's Trumpet
1976
Fenwick Houses
1960
The Girl
1977
The Simple Soul and Other Stories
2001
Ruthless Need
1995
Before I Go
2017
The Upstart
1996
My Beloved Son
1991
The Lady On My Left
1965
Rosie of the River
2000
A Grand Man
1954
The Moth
1986
The Obsession
1995
The Invitation
1970
Tilly Trotter Widowed
1982
The Mallen Streak
1973
The Tinker's Girl
1994
The Fen Tiger
1963
House Of Women
1992
Bill Bailey's Daughter
1989
Catherine Cookson Country
1986
The Nipper
1970
Our Kate
1969
The Rag Nymph
1991
Maggie Rowan
1954
The Fifteen Streets
1952
The Parson's Daughter
1987
The Black Candle
1989
The Nice Bloke
1969
The Long Corridor
1965
The Desert Crop
1997
The Hamilton Trilogy
1991
Our John Willie
1974
The Mary Ann Novels
1986
The Bannaman Legacy
1989
Go Tell it to Mrs. Golightly
1977
Kate Hannigan
1950
The Mallen Girl
1973
A Dinner of Herbs
1985
THE HARROGATE SECRET
1988
Harold
1985
Goodbye Hamilton
1985
The Round Tower
1968
The Devil and Mary Ann
1975
Feathers in the Fire
1971
Fanny McBride
1971
Tide Of Life
1976
The Golden Straw
1993
The Slow Awakening
1976
Fågel utan vingar
2017
The Black Velvet Gown
1984
The Blind Years
1998
Miss Martha Mary Crawford
1975
Rooney
1957
Thursday Friend
1999
The Glass Virgin
1969
The Gillyvors
1990
House of Men
1977
Year of the Virgins
1993
House Divided, A
1999
Bill and the " Mary Ann Shaughnessy "
2011
The Garment
1962
The Smuggler's Secret
2011
Mary Ann's Angels
1978
Tilly Trotter
1980
Love and Mary Ann
1961
Pure As the Lily
1972
The Solace of Sin
1998
Life and Mary Ann
1972
Slinky Jane
1971
Joe & the Gladiator
1971
Color Blind
1966
The Gambling Man
1975
Heritage of Folly
1961
Tilly Trotter Wed
1981
Rory's Fortune
1972
The Bonny Dawn
1996
The Invisible Cord
1975
Marriage and Mary Ann
1964
The Mallen Litter
1974
The Unbaited Trap
1966
The Wingless Bird
1990
Riley
1998
Hannah Massey
1972
Hamilton
1983
The Cultured Handmaiden
1988
Mary Ann and Bill
1967
The Man Who Cried
1979
