Born in 1906 and girl from a poor woman of Tyneside --
illegitimate, nondesired, and rejected as of its birth --
Catherine Cookson lived a
life marked by spite, cruelty,
and the negligence. At twenty-two
years, always under the
effect of a disappointment of love, it left Tyneside in the
search of a new life. After five years and long hours of
labour in the laundry of an old people's home, it finally
managed to buy a house -- good omen indicating that its
escape was complete. In fact, its fight for survival
hardly started. The loss of four babies, a nervous
breakdown and its internment in a psychiatric hospital took
it along at the edge of the suicide and to recognize the
influence of the evil on its person. This remarkable book
will be favorably accomodated by the thousands of readers
who know Catherine Cookson through her novels -- perhaps
better than they do not think it themselves. Catherine
Cookson was a prolific novelist. The Black Candle, gold
Straw, Obsession, and the Year of the Virgins count among
its many works with success. The famous titles of Piers
Dudgeon retained by the literary critic include Catherine
Cookson Country (Country of Catherine Cookson), The Spirit
of Britain (the Spirit of the United Kingdom) and Country
Child (the Child of the Country).