His full name is Joseph Rooney Smith and he works for the corporation of one of the Tyneside towns as an 'M.P.'. This has nothing to do with the Houses of Parliament, but is short for 'Muck Pusher': Rooney is a dustman. A shy man, Rooney has one aim in life - a comfortable home, but with a difference - he did not want a wife. As a result, Rooney spends his time dodging women; his canniness becomes the envy of his mates and the despair of predatory widows and single women. Yet this resolute bachelor's way of thinking is changed in spite of himself, when he moves his treasured bits of furniture and meets Nellie. She seems shy too, but when she uncharacteristically 'breaks out', not only does she throw the gentle Rooney into utter confusion, she awakens in him feelings he never knew he possessed. Rooney, one of Catherine Cookson's most endearing characters, is an ordinary bloke with a dustbin on his shoulder, romance in his soul and Sir Galahad lurking just below skin level. The story of how Rooney finally pushes through to the surface is warm, amusing and thoroughly enjoyable.

Rooney

Her name was Hannah Boyle, but to the people of the village she would always be 'The Girl' - Matthew Thornton's bastard. Savagely treated by Matthew's wife, Anne, she fled for protection to the devil-may-care horse-dealer, Ned Ridley, who had earlier befriended her. But, as the waif grew to beautiful womanhood, she became an object of desire to the local young men, and even to her half-brother. Against her wishes, she was married off, but Hannah kept on fighting for the man she wanted: Ned Ridley, who adored her and taught her the meaning of true love and passion. . .

The Girl

Even as a child Barbara was beautiful, but as her beauty grew so did the affliction which shadowed it. She was becoming deaf. Yet living in an almost silent world protected her from what could be a worse affliction - to know the truth of her own origins. Barbara had another protector in Anna Brigmore, who knew that truth and was haunted by the thought it must one day be revealed to this girl she cherished like her own child. And among the surrounding hills and valleys of Northumberland, it was a long-relished scandal....

Mallen Family

The Mallen Girl

Coming up 16, Tilly Trotter is different from the other girls in her village. Tall for her age and coltish, she is not afraid of taking on 'man's work' to help out the grandparents who raised her in a cottage at the edge of the Sopwith Estate. Testing times lay ahead for Tilly, often hard to endure and even bringing her the undeserved taint of being suspected of witchcraft. She only loves one man, farmer Simon Bentwood, and is heartbroken to discover he is betrothed to another. A spurned suitor takes a terrible revenge, and a betrayal forces her into the cruel drudgery of the local mine. But Tilly refuses to let her spirit be broken - determined that all this will only serve to make her stronger - and she grows to become a young woman of innate courage and fortitude.

Tilly Trotter

Tilly was first a rich man's mistress, then a frontier wife, and now a widow. With her two children, half-blind Willy and her adopted daughter, Josefina, Tilly returns to Highfield Manor, where she'd started her life working as a nursemaid all those years ago. But Tilly is now a rich woman with Highfield, the estate and mine all hers. At 35, she is white-haired, but as spirited and as magnetic to men as ever. Her reputation as a witch continues to grow among the villagers, ever hostile and suspicious, but she is supported by faithful friends and warm memories. There is still much in store for Tilly: old loves and enmities provide fresh challenges, and the final shaping of her destiny makes this novel a most absorbing and vividly dramatic story.

Tilly Trotter Widowed

When Kate Mitchell was offered the job of part-time secretary at Tor-Fret, a lonely old house on the Northumberland fells, she had no idea that the household was composed only of men. Her employer, Maurice Rossiter, an embittered victim of polio, was subject to alternate fits of temper and depression. Even so, Kate found it difficult to understand his peculiar hatred of his elder brother Logan, on whose charity Maurice was obliged to depend. But when she accidentally stumbled upon Maurice with Logan's fiancée, she became aware of some of the secrets of Tor-Fret and realised she was getting too deeply involved with Logan Rossiter and the other inhabitants of this mysterious household. . .

House of Men

High above the river stood the small terrace of miners' cottages known as Fenwick Houses. And here, during the hazardous years of the depression, lived Christine Winter, a girl blessed - or cursed - with the indefinable appeal that drove men to the brink of obsession. Three men dominated her life - her brother Ronnie; Sam, whose devotion to her was deep and loyal; and Don Dowling, cruel and tormented, who made it his life's ambition to possess her. And then, one day, a stranger came to the riverbank, and Christine, who attracted men merely by her presence, found herself changed beyond recall. . .

Fenwick Houses

The Broadhursts were a mining family and, to outsiders, they appeared to be happy, loyal and united. But it was Jinny - wife, mother, sister - who held them together. Her pride and her strength prevented their fears and hates from overwhelming them. There was Jack, her younger son, trapped into marrying a shrew; and Lottie, her sister, who was not quite. . .normal. And there was Larry, the bright one, the handsome one, who was obsessed with the memory of the girl who had jilted him. She was married now, they said, and happily too. But now he was suffused with anger, together with pain and a reborn longing. He vowed she would not make a laughing stock of him again. But could he do what his pride told him he must. . .?

The Menagerie

Ever since her mother died, Martha Mary had had to take over the running of her home, a sprawling mansion called The Habitation. She did everything she could to make ends meet, but could not understand why they were in such financial straits - especially as when her mother was alive, they had several profitable businesses. She hoped that her father's frequent visits to Great-Uncle James would finally come good when he died, and they could sell his house to alleviate their great need of money. But when her father died suddenly, his last words to her were to go to Great-Uncle James' house and deliver a message. That journey was to change Martha Mary's feelings for the men in her life and brought home to her the huge burden she now carried on her young shoulders. . .

Miss Martha Mary Crawford

When Cissie Brody was 15, fever swept the English countryside, killing her parents and leaving her to care for her nine younger siblings. Rejecting the offers of town officials to care for the children in the workhouse, Cissie is determined to keep the family together and moves them to a cave-like dwelling place on the Fells. One afternoon as she is returning home, she is attacked by Isabelle Fischel and raped by her twin brother, Lord Clive Fischel, later bearing him a son. Cissie refuses to give up the child until her sister faces imprisonment for a childish misdemeanour. It is through love and friendship that Cissie learns not to fear the world beyond the dwelling place.

The Dwelling Place

Proud and canny, ignorant and intensely ambitious, Hannah Massey is a born ruler. Her kingdom may only be a working-class household in County Durham, but within its walls her iron will governs a predominantly male family, her word 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. The apple of Hannah's eye is her pretty younger daughter, Rosie, who has just returned home after a spell in London. Rosie had gone south, so Hannah thought, to escape the passionate pursuit of a young man she had known for most of her life. Her return is shrouded in mystery and evasive responses, and when the truth does come out, Hannah's world is torn apart and her dreams are shattered.

Hannah Massey

Sep McGilby always said that Emily Kennedy had a happy face. And at 16, Emily had a lot to be glad about. She loved working as maid-of-all-work for the McGilbys, the only cloud on her horizon was her anxiety about her delicate younger sister, Lucy. But when Mrs McGilby dies, and Sep is killed in an accident soon after, Emily and Lucy must leave South Shields to look for work, which they find at Croft Dene House. The household of Croft Dene, where Lawrence Birch ruled as master, was a strange one, and as Emily became more deeply involved with the family's affairs, she grew rapidly to a young woman, needing all her strength of will and character to survive. And whatever else happened, she clung to a scrap of philosophy that carried her through the bitter struggles of her new life.

The Tide of Life

In the mid-1850s, life for an orphan was grim, as Kirsten MacGregor discovered when her parents died suddenly on a journey to Northumberland, leaving her penniless and alone in the hands of a cruel farmer. Somehow, Kirsten survived her terrible childhood - only to be sold, at the age of 14, to a travelling tinker - a vicious man who held her captive until the fateful day they were separated during a storm. Rescued from the flood by the Flynn family, she gave birth to a child as the waters raged about her. At the same time, Florence, mistress of the great house nearby, was told that her newborn son was dead. The two women entered into a secret bargain, an arrangement that was to change Kirsten's fortune and place her in the middle of a bitter feud between two families.

The Slow Awakening

There were plenty around Fellburn who said Maggie Rowan was as plain as a pikestaff, a woman consumed with jealousy at her sister's good fortune in marrying well. But Maggie Rowan, with her dogged determination to succeed, had two raging ambitions beneath a cold and forbidding exterior: to become the mother of a child whom she could love and to escape from the life of the miner's cottage to one of the big houses on Brampton Hill. When she marries the easy-going Chris Taggart, her marriage is planned shrewdly and without sentiment. Like her, he is considered the 'odd man out' and, for that reason, the only one likely to have her and who unleashes her hidden desire to be loved.

Maggie Rowan

Now that her brood had left the nest, Fanny McBride, a large, cheerful and indomitable Tyneside widow, had time to sit by her window and watch the goings-on outside. There was plenty to keep her occupied: the mystery of the new woman at Mulhattan's Hall, the tenement block (here a fortnight already and not so much as a hello); the long-standing feud with Mrs Flannagan; after-school visits from her grandson Corny. But Fanny had any intention of ending her days in lonely isolation. So when her friend Mary fell sick and couldn't work, it was Fanny who took her place. She enjoyed imagining how her son Phil would react. He was the clever one, with his job in the Borough Treasurer's office. She could picture his face when she told him she'd got a job in town - looking after the ladies' lavatories. . .

Fanny McBride

Someone had once told Emma Molinero, the daughter of an itinerant carnival performer, that she was made for trouble.  Her earliest memories were of life with a travelling show - part fair and part circus - that toured the shires at the dawn of the Victorian era. But at the age of seven she found herself an orphan who, in accordance with her Spanish father's dying wishes, must now leave the warm and friendly community to live with an unknown English grandmother far to the north in County Durham. With her she took the whips and knives used with such dexterity by her father for his act and for which she had an inherited skill: a strange legacy that would make her a figure of mysterious but commanding fascination to the villagers and ultimately play a significant part in shaping Emma's destiny.

The Whip

John Emmerson was a lonely man. He had a wife, a son, friends, but he was isolated from all the people and events around him by the tragedy of his past. Then he met Cissie, and for the first time his loneliness eased a little. Cissie was everything that his wife Ann was not. She was warm, compassionate and generous. And she was quick to sense the needs of a desolate unhappy man. But Cissie was also a young widow: poor, and with a young son to support. And John Emmerson was one of the town's leading solicitors - a man of importance whose every move was watched by the local dignitaries. . .

The Unbaited Trap

In the brooding north country hills, a man and a woman fought for the passion they felt for each other that the world branded a disgrace. . .Agnes Thorman - the proud but forlorn mistress of a once-grand estate, whose society forbade her the man who was her equal in all but name. . .Robert Bradley - a gifted craftsman, as visionary and challenging as the dawning new age. He had yet to seize his dream, which could destroy the woman he loved. . .And Milicent Thorman - the strange, wise girl-child fated to play a part in the lovers' unfolding destiny. . .

The Moth

Prudence Dudley was a woman who appeared to have everything: an undeniably attractive woman who had already achieved considerable success as a novelist. Yet she remained at odds with life after her sad rejected childhood and a more recent deeply wounding emotional crisis. Nearing a breakdown, Prudence seeks support from her staunch and supportive Auntie Maggie, and flees to her rented cottage in the Lake District. They encounter the owner of the cottage,  aggressive and overbearing David Bernard Michael McVeigh. In time, Pru comes to learn that his iron façade is not the whole man and that life had dealt him as raw a deal as ever it had her. Relentlessly, Pru finds herself drawn more and more into the affairs of a strange household. By helping those in her household, will Pru come closer to finding her happiness?

The Iron Façade

To outsiders, Dr Paul Higgins' life appeared to be happy and contented. Everyone had a good word for him and his home life appeared to be ideal. At 36, Bett Higgins could still pass for a much younger woman, not just in looks but in the way she loved the company of people half her age. A grand couple, some might say. But once the surgery was closed and the curtains drawn, the façade that Paul and Bett Higgins presented to the world concealed a welter of hate and ill-conceived bitterness that had grown worse with the passing years. Between them stood the barrier of the past - of secrets that each had long kept close. Unable to forgive each other, they led their separate lives - until Bett decided to allow her spite and resentment to culminate in revenge on the husband she did not love. . .

The Long Corridor

Annabella LaGrange was the only child of a wealthy family, owners of a glassworks in the North-East of England. When Annabella was seven, she thought the world a delightful place to live in, and only occasionally wondered why her parents never took her beyond the gates of their magnificent country estate. When she was ten she decided that the seclusion didn't really matter because when she grew up she would marry her handsome cousin Stephen and never be lonely again. But when she is 17, 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.

The Glassmaker's Daughter

Rodney Prince, a doctor who chose to work amongst the poor of Newcastle to the shame of his beautiful wife, has never seen a girl look more out of place in the grime of the Fifteen Streets than Kate Hannigan. Her beauty and intelligence far outshine that of his hard, brittle and calculating wife. As their paths continue to cross, Rodney cannot fail to be drawn towards her. But as an unlikely romance blossoms, their controversial love affair fuels vicious gossip amongst the denizens of the Fifteen Streets. For it is a love that opposes all the concepts of Edwardian society, but ultimately, despite their many trials, their story is one of success and joy.

Kate Hannigan

The Batleys and the Cadwells owned neighbouring farms on the beautiful, wild Northumbrian coast. But there all similarity ended, and enmity began. For between the two families raged a violent and bitter feud. Into this stormy atmosphere came Linda Metcalfe, an agricultural student, who became involved in the tensions between the two households on her arrival. Employed by Ralph Batley, Linda soon found herself unwittingly a part of the feud, and began to feel a strange admiration for Ralph, who made it painfully clear that he didn't need her on the farm or in his life. The past erupted into the present, forcing Ralph to see Linda in a different light and in the process bringing the Batley/Cadwell heritage of folly to a resolution.

Heritage of Folly

Motherhood is every woman's right and the natural outcome of a happy marriage. But what then when a normal and beautiful young woman is forced to recognise, after two years as the wife of a country parson in the north of England, that her marriage will never bring her the fulfilment she desperately needs? Grace Rouse is faced with this situation and, like many other women before her, she seeks to escape a mounting sense of frustration and despair by turning from the husband she has tried in vain to love to the comfort and release offered by another man. The outcome presents a huge dilemma as Grace is forced to wage a war between a man who can give her children and love and a man who passionately desires children but can only give them his name.

The Garment

Deep in the wild fen country, Rosamund Morley lived a cloistered, poverty-stricken existence with her sister Jennifer and her alcoholic father. She was the prop and stay of the family - and it was she who ran for help the night her father set his bed alight after a drinking bout. That night was to change the course of Rosamund's life - for, fleeing through the woods, she met Michael Bradshaw, the man she christened the 'Fen Tiger'. When she knew more of Michael's past and the fate that had forced him to live in isolation, Rosamund's initial feelings of dislike slowly changed to compassion. . .and then to something deeper. . .

The Fen Tiger

Life on the Fifteen Streets was a continual struggle for survival. John O'Brien grew up in abject poverty, confined to the hardships of the Fifteen Streets. Labouring on the city's docks and trying to keep his loved ones safe from the drunken wrath of his father and brother, this is the only way of life he knows. Then John O'Brien meets his sister's teacher. Mary Llewellyn is beautiful and elegant, wealthy and privileged. She wants to help the less fortunate through education, in the hope it will enable them to escape their desolate lives. From a casual conversation over tea grows a rare love, but fate steps in when John is accused of fathering the child of a local girl and Mary's parents forbid her to see John. The couple begin to think that gulf between them cannot be bridged. . .

The Fifteen Streets

Each generation of the Mallen family has been cursed with a dramatic white streak in their jet-black hair. Barbara does not have the visible streak to identify her as a Mallen, but she has spent her life trying to forget her parentage - and the horrific circumstances behind her birth. When her triplets - the Mallen litter - were born, she hoped that it would herald a new beginning. But it seems that one of her sons bears the Mallen streak - and that the Mallen curse will never die out....

The Mallen Litter

It was a wartime white wedding but it was not a love match. Annie Cooper married George McCabe for one reason only: she was expecting his child. But Annie was a girl of spirit and determined to make the marriage work. Annie applied herself to that task as she matured into a woman of character and resource. The family prospered even as it grew. She bore George four children, but it was the first who always held her heart in the hollow of his hand. From early childhood, Rance was a problem. There were traits in his character that were hard to excuse or even understand, but whatever trouble he got into, Annie would forgive him. Mother and son were bound together by an invisible cord; invisible but strong enough to become a noose for both of them.

The Invisible Cord

Tilly Trotter has devotedly served Mark Sopwith at Highfield Manor for twelve years. She is his wife in all but name. Theirs is a scandalous yet happy arrangement. But when Mark dies, Tilly is left pregnant with his illegitimate child. Cast out of the manor house by Mark's spiteful grown-up daughter, Tilly is forced to face the prejudices of the local village. No stranger to hardship, she makes do as best she can, but when a villager's vicious attack leaves her baby son, Willy, half blinded she knows that it is time to leave her native Tyneside. A new love seems to offer an escape and so she follows her heart to America, sure that this will be the beginning of a better life. But new perils await Tilly across the ocean. . .

Tilly Trotter Wed

Roddy Greenbank was brought by his father to the remote Northumberland community of Langley in the autumn of 1807. Within hours of their arrival, however, the father meets a violent death and the boy is left with all memory of his past life gone. Adopted and raised by old Kate Makepeace, Roddy found his closest companions in Hal Roystan and Mary Ellen Lee. These three stand at the heart of a richly eventful narrative that spans the first half of the 19th century, their lives lastingly intertwined by the inexorable demands of a strange and somewhat cruel destiny.

A Dinner of Herbs

Thomas Mallen of High Banks Hall had many sons, most of them bastards. But to all of them he passed on his mark - a distinctive flash of white hair running to the left temple, known as the Mallen Streak. It was said that those who bore the streak seldom reached old age and that nothing good ever came of a Mallen. In 1851, Thomas Mallen found himself a ruined man, forced amid scandal and disgrace to sell the hall. With him went his two young wards and their indomitable governess. Then the Radlet brothers of Wilbur Farm arrived, one of whom bore the unmistakable Mallen Streak.

The Mallen Streak

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. . .

The Cinder Path

Rory Connor was a gambling man and he had a gambler's luck. From the day he was born, his mother had known that Rory would be the one to make something of his life. At seven years old he was earning money from odd jobs and by 14 he was in full-time work. By the time he was 19, he had escaped the factory to become a rent-collector. Now, at 23, ambition was in full flow and he was always looking to bigger and better games to play. He feared nothing and nobody, not even the unscrupulous landlord he collected for. 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. . .

Gambling Man, The

Cock Shield Farm, 1881. After Molly Geary finds herself pregnant with landowner Angus McBain's child, she is left distraught and ruined. Dishonoured by being the secret mistress of McBain, she must find an alternative suitor to save her reputation, or else the threat of being discarded looms. McBain devises a plan to claim his employee, Davie Armstrong, as the father to Molly's child. Leaving the pair forced to marry, the issue appears resolved. But with secrecy comes consequences, and young Molly realises she is tied in a web of lies beyond what she could imagine. . .

Her Secret Son

Thomas Mallen på High Banks Hall har mange sønner – og flest uægte af slagsen. Men en ting har de alle til fælles: den karakteristiske hvide hårlok fra faderen. I 1851 rammes familien Mallen af økonomisk ruin, og familiens ære sættes voldsomt på prøve. Den tidligere så mægtige Thomas Mallen må flytte til et lille hus sammen med sine to niecer Barbara og Constance. Da banker dramaet på døren: Radlet-brødrene, den skrøbelige Matthew og den ubarmhjertige stræber Donald, hvis hvide hårlok ikke er til at tage fejl af, dukker op, og nu er gode råd dyre. Kærlighed og romantik var den britiske forfatter Catherine Cooksons (1906-1998) specialområde, og i sin levetid skrev hun flere end 80 kærlighedsromaner, der blev internationale successer i oversættelser til flere end ti forskellige sprog.

Mallen-sagaen

Selv som barn var Barbara en smuk pige. Og hendes skønhed bliver mere udtalt, for hver dag der går. Imidlertid gør hun en grufuld opdagelse, der knuser hende: Mens hun vokser op til at blive en strålende kvinde, mærker hun, at hun er ved at blive totalt døv. Men kunne stilheden beskytte hende mod sandheden om hendes fødsel og oprindelse? Kærlighed og romantik var den britiske forfatter Catherine Cooksons (1906-1998) specialområde, og i sin levetid skrev hun flere end 80 kærlighedsromaner, der blev internationale successer i oversættelser til flere end ti forskellige sprog.

Mallen-skæbner

"Mallen-arvingeren" er tredje og sidste del af trilogien om familien Mallen, der generation efter generation bliver sat til vægs af skæbnens grusomme lune. Særligt mændene er hårdt ramte. Familiemærket er en hvid stribe i det ellers kulsorte hår. Barbara er sluppet for det skæbnesvangre mærke, og hun har da også gennem hele sin opvækst forsøgt at glemme alt om den forbandelse, der synes at hvile over familien. Men da Barbara føder trillinger og den ene af hendes sønner bærer Mallen-mærket, er hun nødsaget til at se skæbnen i øjnene... Kærlighed og romantik var den britiske forfatter Catherine Cooksons (1906-1998) specialområde, og i sin levetid skrev hun flere end 80 kærlighedsromaner, der blev internationale successer og oversat til mere end 10 forskellige sprog.

Mallen-arvingerne

Der findes mænd, som af og til kommer ud i så stærke følelsesmæssige konflikter, at de bryder sammen i gråd. En sådan mand er Abel Mason. Han lever i et ulykkeligt ægteskab med den ondskabsfulde og beregnende Lena, der lader sit had til manden gå ud over sønnen Dick på 7 år. Lena opdager en dag, at Abel har forelsket sig i Alice, og skriver et brev til Alices mand om affæren. Lenas hævngerrighed overgås af Alices mands, og forfærdelige ulykker regner snart ned over begge familier. Handlingen i denne dybt bevægende roman strækker sig fra begyndelsen af 1930’erne og ind i 2. verdenskrig og giver et eminent eksempel på Catherine Cooksons mesterlige fortællekunst og dybe forståelse af den menneskelige natur. Kærlighed og romantik var den britiske forfatter Catherine Cooksons (1906-1998) specialområde, og i sin levetid skrev hun flere end 80 kærlighedsromaner, der blev internationale succeser og oversat til mere end 10 forskellige sprog.

Manden der græd

Året er 1851, da Hannahs mor pludselig bliver syg af tuberkulose, bliver den kun 8-årige pige overladt i et velhavende ægtepars varetægt. Herfra forvandler Hannahs barndom sig til lidt af en pinsel og da hun endelig bliver voksen nok til at flytte hjemmefra, hænger hendes nerver i laser. Men håbet om en bedre fremtid blusser endnu svagt i hende. "Gøgeungen" af Catherine Cookson er en psykologisk skildring af en piges skæbne. En skæbne, der står i kraftig modsætning til det idylliske, engelske landsby sceneri, der omgiver hende. Kærlighed og romantik var den britiske forfatter Catherine Cooksons (1906-1998) specialområde, og i sin levetid skrev hun flere end 80 kærlighedsromaner, der blev internationale successer og oversat til mere end 10 forskellige sprog.

Gøgeungen

Is dit alles wat het leven te bieden heeft? De 21-jarige Jinny is bang dat ze nooit plezier zal beleven in haar werk of pure liefde zal vinden. Net verlaten door haar verloofde en vast in een saaie kantoorbaan, leidt ze een eenzaam bestaan. Op het moment dat ze het het minst verwacht, neemt haar leven een onverwachte wending wanneer ze door haar baas gepromoveerd wordt tot zijn secretaresse en al gauw zijn hart weet te veroveren. Plotseling wordt ze opgemerkt, ook door andere mannen in haar omgeving. Ze weet niet wat haar overkomt! Is dit Jinny’s kans op een nieuw, gelukkig leven? Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

In jouw armen

Het is het jaar 1830 wanneer de vijftienjarige Cissie haar ouders verliest aan cholera. De zorg voor haar maar liefst negen jongere broertjes en zusjes komt volledig op haar schouders terecht. Dakloos en gebroken van verdriet gaat ze niet bij de pakken neerzitten. Vastberaden weet ze een stenen hut te bouwen voor haar familie, waar de kinderen arm, maar veilig opgroeien. Op een dag ontmoet ze de rijke edelman Clive. Is dit de grote ommekeer waar de familie met smart op heeft gewacht, of het begin van nog meer ellende? Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

Vlucht naar de heuvels

Beatrice, de oudste dochter van de welgestelde Simon Steel, neemt zonder enige moeite het huishouden in huize Dennenlust over wanneer haar moeder overlijdt. Haar drie zussen zien haar strenge beleid met lede ogen aan en merken hoe het landgoed een obsessie voor Beatrice wordt. Bij het overlijden van de vader des huizes, is ze tot in de puntjes voorbereid om het huis en de grond eromheen over te nemen. Maar als ze het testament te zien krijgen, neemt hun leven een onverwachte wending, want het huis is niet het enige dat Simon hen nalaat... Een verborgen familiegeheim komt ten tonele waardoor de zussen samen hun lot moeten overwinnen. Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

Als de ochtend gloort

‘Dans in het maanlicht’ vertelt over hartstocht, verlangen en een verboden liefde in het begin van de vorige eeuw. Robert Bradley, werkzaam op de houtzagerij van zijn oom, is een kwieke jongen, maar staat als arbeider onderaan de sociale ladder. Op een dag ontmoet hij Agnes, de oudste dochter van de voorheen welgestelde familie Thorman. Bij Robert slaat de hartstochtelijke vonk direct over voor de wijze en dappere Agnes. Voorzien zij de grote gevolgen die hun verboden liefde zal veroorzaken? 

Dans in het maanlicht

In ‘Als koppige wijn’ word je meegevoerd van de armoedige buitenwijken langs de Tyne rivier tot de welgestelde kringen in Engeland in de eerste jaren van de twintigste eeuw. Kan liefde deze twee gescheiden werelden verenigen? Kate Hannigan, alleenstaande moeder, leeft een hard bestaan in een achterstandswijk met een gewelddadige vader en maakt zich geen illusies over haar toekomst. Toch neemt haar leven een onverwachte wending wanneer ze de warmhartige dokter Rodney Prince ontmoet. Het wordt zijn missie om haar uit de ellende te helpen terwijl hij betoverd wordt door Kate’s wijsheid en charme. Wat vindt Rodney’s arrogante vrouw van zijn nieuwe liefdadigheidsproject? Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

Als koppige wijn

Behendig, pienter en ondernemend, dat is de jonge Freddy Musgrove in een notendop. In de roerige tijden van de negentiende eeuw, blijven zijn talenten dan ook niet onopgemerkt. Binnen een mum van tijd wordt hij gevraagd om geheimzinnige boodschappen en pakketjes door de douane te krijgen. Als koerier varend door de Theems, levert hij een pakketje af bij het Grote Huis. Maar wat voor verschrikkelijks hij daar te zien krijgt, blijft hem zijn leven lang achtervolgen. Of is het zijn ticket naar een gelukkig, liefdevol leven? Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

Liefde is de boodschap

Hoe komt Prudence los van de verschrikkelijke herinneringen uit haar jeugd? Haar antwoord is isolement. De succesvolle romanschrijfster Prudence Dudley besluit het roer volledig om te gooien door haar drukke bestaan achter zich te laten en tijd door te brengen in het rustieke Lake District. Erg vredig is het er alleen niet, want al gauw komt ze in aanraking met de driftige en arrogante eigenaar van het landgoed. Verrassend genoeg brengt juist hun overeenkomstige, afschuwelijke voorgeschiedenis hen nader bij elkaar. Zullen zij het verleden weten in te halen? Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

Een dal van liefde

Voor de O’Briens is iedere dag een gevecht om te overleven. Mary Ellen en haar vijf kinderen wonen in de armoedige buitenwijken van een Engels mijnwerkersdorp. Ze staat er helemaal alleen voor, want haar man is verslaafd aan alcohol en regelmatig agressief. John, haar oudste zoon, werkt in de haven om het gezin te kunnen onderhouden. Hij is anders dan de meeste mannen in de buurt: Hij is gevoelig, slim en zijn moeders enige steun en toeverlaat. Toch wordt zijn unieke persoonlijkheid niet op prijs gesteld en brengt hij zijn moeder in de problemen wanneer hij verliefd wordt op een meisje boven zijn stand. Weet John zich uit dit uitzichtloze bestaan te vechten? Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

De harde strijd om het bestaan

Zal Hannah ooit het geluk in haar leven weten te vinden? Het leven van de jonge Hannah verandert voorgoed wanneer haar moeder plotseling overlijdt. Ze wordt opgevangen door een rijke familie, maar zij geven niets om het verdrietige meisje. Sterker nog, ze wordt gehaat door de moeder van het gezin. Wanneer ze zich niet meer kan herinneren hoe liefde voelt, gebeurt er iets onverwachts. Zal Hannah ooit de ware tegenkomen? Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

Hannah

Wie had ooit gedacht dat de strooien hoed met gouden glans haar hele leven zou veranderen? In het prachtige Victoriaanse Londen krijgt Emily de prachtige hoed cadeau van haar beste vriendin. Wanneer ze naar Nice reist voor vakantie, trekt het hoofddeksel de aandacht van de aantrekkelijke Paul, en Emily weet zijn hart te veroveren. Helaas is Paul niet de lieve man wie hij leek en verwoest Emilys leven, waar zelfs haar kinderen en kleinkinderen nog de gevolgen van kunnen merken. Hoe heeft de strooien hoed alles zo overhoop gehaald? Catherine Cookson (1906 - 1998) groeide op in een arm gezin in Engeland en is uitgegroeid tot een van de populairste romanschrijfsters in Groot-Brittannië. Hoewel ze pas op haar 44e haar eerste boek uitbracht, heeft ze in haar leven meer dan honderd boeken geschreven waarvan er wereldwijd meer dan honderd miljoen verkocht zijn. Haar bekendste werken zijn ‘Fiona’, ‘Het geslacht Mallen’, ‘Maisie’, ‘Mary Ann’ en ‘Tilly Trotter’. Op 91-jarige leeftijd overleed Cookson en liet ze de wereld achter met een indrukwekkend oeuvre aan romantische weglezers en vele verfilmingen.

De strooien hoed

In ‘De vreugde van het leven’ staat opnieuw een sterke, onafhankelijke vrouw in de hoofdrol, zoals een echte Catherine Cookson betaamd. Maak kennis met Ellen Jebeau, weduwe en moeder van haar zoontje Joseph. Haar overleden echtgenoot liet haar achter met enorme schulden, waardoor zijn broer, Arthur, Ellen en Joseph aanbiedt om bij hem in de trekken in zijn prachtige huis. Dat kwam goed uit voor Ellen, die alles over had voor een betere toekomst voor haar kind. Er bloeit iets op tussen de twee... Maar had Ellen dezelfde keuze gemaakt, als ze wist wat voor reusachtige gevolgen dit zou hebben voor haar en Joseph?  

De vreugde van het leven

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