Daughter of Scandal

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Summary

'Catherine Cookson soars above her rivals' Mail on Sunday
'Her characters have the grit of real life' Sunday Times
'Queen of raw family romances' Telegraph

A rags-to-riches story of a young woman who must overcome the scandal of her past to forge a new life.

In Heap Hollow cottage in County Durham live what appears to be a close and loving family. But across the happy façade lies a shadow that has lengthened and darkened with the passing years. Their narrow-minded neighbours disapprove of the family's choices because of their illegitimacy, their mother and father never having married.

Anna, the eldest daughter, is determined to face the challenging legacy of her birth and prove herself to those in the community who look down on her. Will her strength of character and zest for life be enough to put the scandal of her past behind her and forge a new life?

Previously published as The Gillyvors

Reviews

Catherine Cookson soars above her rivals
Mail on Sunday

About the author

Catherine Cookson

Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, whom she believed to be her older sister. She 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 of contemporary women novelists. After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She was appointed an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in 1997. For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998.

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