The perfect gift? A Penguin Shop gift card

Her Family's Shame

byCatherine Cookson

Format:

Paperback

Pre-order:

AmazonOpens in a new tabBlackwellsOpens in a new tabBookshop.orgOpens in a new tabFoylesOpens in a new tabHiveOpens in a new tabWaterstonesOpens in a new tabWHSmithOpens in a new tab

She was given a second chance - but at what cost?

In 1937, fourteen-year-old Lizzie Gillespie is rescued from a desperate future by Geoff Fulton, a soldier who refuses to turn his back on her. He brings Lizzie into his family home, where she becomes a companion to his ailing mother, and is offered a chance of security she has never known.

Under the Fulton roof, Lizzie flourishes. Educated and cared for, she grows into a confident young woman, loyal to the family who saved her and grateful for the life she has been given.

But the war changes everything. When Geoff returns home hardened and embittered, the man Lizzie once trusted is gone and the fragile balance of the household begins to fracture. As old loyalties are tested, Lizzie is forced to confront a painful truth: to claim the future she truly wants, will she really risk bringing shame upon the family who gave her everything?

About 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.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9781804998007
  • Length: 336 pages
  • Price: £8.99