Catherine Cookson

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Biography

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.

  • Primary profession
  • Writer
  • Country
  • United Kingdom
  • Nationality
  • British
  • Gender
  • Female
  • Birth date
  • 20 June 1906
  • Place of birth
  • South Shields· Tyne & Wear· England
  • Death date
  • 1998-06-11
  • Death age
  • 92
  • Place of death
  • Hastings
  • Knows language
  • English language

Music

Movies

Books

Awards

Trivia

She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1985 Queens Birthday Honours List and the DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1993 Queens New Year Honours List for her services to literature.

She also authored books under the names of both Catherine Marchant and Katie McMullen.

Quotes

Her love for him was almost like a pain in itself.

And, like the prodigal son, he had returned broken in body and also in mind to the house where he had been born, and he and his child had been welcomed with open arms.

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