In memory of Catherine Cookson

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Dame Catherine Ann Cookson DBE (20 June 1906 – 11 June 1998) was an English author. Cookson became Britain's most widely read novelist, while remaining a relatively low-profile figure in the world of celebrity writers. Her books were inspired by her deprived youth in North East England, the setting for her novels.

Cookson took up writing as a form of therapy to tackle her depression, and joined Hastings Writers' Group. Her first novel, Kate Hannigan, was published in 1950. Though it was labelled a romance, she expressed discontent with the stereotype. Her books were, she said, historical novels about people and conditions she knew. Cookson had little to do with the London literary circus. She was always more interested in practicing the art of writing. Her research could be uncomfortable - going down a mine, for instance, because her heroine came from a mining area. Having in her youth wanted to write about "above stairs" in grand houses, she later and successfully concentrated on people ground down by circumstances, taking care to know them well.

She remained the most borrowed author from public libraries in the UK for more than 20 years, only losing the title in 2004, which is testament to the ongoing popularity of her novels.

She died aged 91 (16 days before her 92nd birthday) at her home in Newcastle, although her novels, many written from her sickbed, continued to be published posthumously until 2002. Her husband, Tom Cookson, died on 28 June 1998, just 17 days after Catherine. He had been hospitalised for a week and the cause of his death was not announced. He was 86 years old.

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