Catherine Cookson

[Misfit]

Anyone heard of this (http://www.goodreads.com/search/search?search_type=books&search%5Bquery%5D=catherine+cookson) author? One of her books was recommended to me by an Amazon friend and from looking at her books she was quite prolific and (yay!) the library has plenty to choose from. There's not much there review wise on Amazon and I can't tell if she's more geared towards romance or serious history.

[boswellbaxter]

I've never read her, but there's a piece about her here. My impression is that she wrote historical fiction as opposed to historical romance.

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/cookson.htm

[Ariadne]

I've read a lot of Cookson and enjoy her work. They're historical fiction, and I'd call them British regional sagas (about the industrial North-East of England, mostly). They're romantic in places but not romance as Americans define it. Some of her novels are too melodramatic for words (The Fen Tiger was one of these for me), but others are more realistic; I prefer the latter! My favorites were the novels in her Tilly Trotter trilogy. I know we often have different tastes, so your mileage may vary :)

Janet MacLeod Trotter wrote a trilogy of sagas about Cookson's own life, and that of her mother and grandmother. She's an excellent writer herself, and I enjoyed them just as much.

[Madeleine]

Catherine Cookson was one of the UK's best-known authors, and at one time one of the most borrowed authors from libraries. She did write lots of books, I've read quite a few and, as Ariadne says, they're set mainly in the North East of England and although they have a historical setting I wouldn't say they were HF in the same way as say, P Gregory or Alison Weir, they just happen to be set in the past, they're more family-type sagas or tell of one woman's struggle (usually a woman anyway) to better herself in life or trying to get away from a tough background (which the author had herself). They do tend to have several recurring themes - illegitimacy being the main one; with the main character trying to overcome the stigma that there was in those days of being born out of wedlock (she was illegitimate herself and grew up thinking that her aunt was her mother), and as such can become a bit repetitive. My personal favourites are the Mallen books, which follow the Mallen family and their various off-shoots (the Mallen men were, shall I say, very fertile!) and their relationships. Many of her books have been filmed for TV in the UK with some quite well-known (now anyway) people in them, like Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Bean (The Fifteen Streets, one of her best), not sure if these have been shown in the US although they're often repeated on satellite TV here.

[Misfit]

Thanks for the input, I'm intrigued and have placed holds for a couple at the library (it looks like they have pretty near all of her books). I'll check back and let you know.

[Vanessa]

Catherine Cookson wrote about what she knew about - I believe that one or two of her books were semi-autobiographical. She was brought up in a very poor area in the North East and I believe she was illegitimate (as it was referred to in those days) herself, which led to this being a theme in most, if not all, of her books.

[EC2]

Catherine Cookson was mega in the UK throughout her career. Her novels sold by the millions and some have been turned in films for TV. At one time she was a household name and most UK adults would have heard of her - even if they didn't read books. I've not read any of her books - or should I say I started one and it wasn't for me stylistically, but she really was a star in her day. (in the UK anyway) and was one of the formative authors in creating the UK regional saga genre.

Edited to say that her legacy lives on. Saga author Catherine King uses this pen name as a tribute to Cookson and to bring her name in closer to the deceased queen of the genre.

[Leyland]

Some of her novels are too melodramatic for words (The Fen Tiger was one of these for me)
Good to know! I bought The Fen Tiger for a dollar when I bought The Lynmara Legacy by Catherine Gaskin in May. Fen is not high on my TBR and likely will sink a bit lower now.

[Margaret]

I need to add more of Cookson's novels to my website, but I'm having a hard time finding definite information on the time period in which some of them are set. In particular, I want to add Kate Hannigan and Kate Hannigan's Girl. I think these may be 19th century (but maybe early 20th century). Can anyone help?

I've already got the following on the 19th century page:

The Glass Virgin
The Black Velvet Gown
The Harrogate Secret
The Gillyvors (aka The Love Child)
The Rag Nymph
The Maltese Angel
The Golden Straw
The Desert Crop (reviewed (http://www.HistoricalNovels.info/Desert-Crop.html))

I'd welcome suggestions of others to add if you can tell me what time period they fit into!

[Misfit]

Good review on the Desert Crop. That's the only one I tried so far and intend to read more soon.

[Margaret]

Thanks, Misfit!

[Ariadne]

I need to add more of Cookson's novels to my website, but I'm having a hard time finding definite information on the time period in which some of them are set. In particular, I want to add Kate Hannigan and Kate Hannigan's Girl. I think these may be 19th century (but maybe early 20th century). Can anyone help?

They're both early 20th c. Kate Hannigan is set in the early 1900s, and the sequel takes place in the 1920s. (The former was partly autobiographical.) I have a shelf of her novels, but unless it says on the back what the timeframe is, it's hard to guess without reading them. For most of the ones I have, there's no year stated within the novel itself.

[Margaret]

Thanks, Ariadne! You're a champ.

I doubt the other novels (except for the ones I've already listed) say on the back covers what the time period is, because I haven't been able to find it on Amazon, Fantastic Fiction, or any of the other websites that give blurbs. A bit frustrating - but many of her readers probably weren't reading her novels because they were historical fiction, but just because they knew they liked her other novels, so the publishers didn't bother with the time period when promoting the books.

[Misfit]

I thought these books might be of interest to Michy so I'm bumping the thread.

[Michy]

Thanks, Misfit, that's nice of you. :)

I've always heard of Catherine Cookson; in my 20s I worked with an English lady who told me about her (as others have said, she was huge in the UK). She never achieved quite that level of popularity here, and for some reason, I never tried any of her books. I might have read one, but I don't really remember.

Maybe I should give her a try one of these days. Have you read any of her books? Any that you would recommend in particular?

[Misfit]

I've only read one so far and the name escapes me, but I gave it four on Amazon. Tara at Goodreads has read quite a few, so you might hunt her down over on that side of the pond.

[Michy]

I went to the library at lunchtime and picked one up while I was there. See what power of suggestion you have? LOL

[SGM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Cookson

I assume that is the full list. I read the Mallen novels when I was in my teens but she was not really not my type of author even then. But she was huge here. Currently the old UK History Channel (now called Yesterday) regularly shows ad infinitum most of the old televised versions along with endless repeats of Sharpe. I don't know which channel made them originally. Good luck if you can bear them. Amazon UK also sell the complete DVD collection.

[annis]

I've read a lot of CC's novels- in her day she was (as noted) one of the most prolific and popular writers of the historical family sagas which British writers do so well.

Catherine Cookson's work is very Victorian melodrama in style- think aristocratic or heartless wealthy mine or mill-owner villains twirling their arrogant moustaches as poor but plucky young girls in tattered shawls are cast out in the snow, illegitimate babies clutched at breast. There is usually a HEA as said poor but plucky heroine survives many tribulations to eventually find love with a steadfast and faithful (often lower-class, but occasionally sensitive upper-class) young man. Sometimes you catch a whiff of Virginia Andrews' Flowers in the Attic-gothic lurking as well.

[Madeleine]

The Mallen trilogy is one of my all-time favourites, heartily recommended if you like family sagas although it's not a historical as such, though the last book does cover the First World War period.

Annis has summed the books up quite well, there's always illegitimacy (CC was illegitimate herself) and usually someone with a disability too, and they do tend to be pretty formulaic so I'd advise not to read too many at once as they get quite repetitive fairly quickly, but they're easy reads if you fancy something a bit lighter.

Which one did you choose Michy?

ITV made the original dramas, and lots of actors sort of started their careers in them - Sean Bean, Catherine Zeta-Jones to name but two. Actually the one with Bean, The Fifteen Streets, is worth a look!

[Michy]

Sometimes you catch a whiff of Virginia Andrews' Flowers in the Attic-gothic lurking as well.

Eeeew. I read that as a teenager, not something I'd care to revisit!

I'm reading The Cultured Handmaiden. I'm only a few pages into it, and so far it's not bad. It sort of reads like a British soap opera to me. Mind you I've never watched a soap opera, either British or American, but I imagine this is what they are like! ;)

[annis]

Yes, I've never been able to understand why Virginia Andrews' books remain so popular. I find them distinctly icky.

There are several modern authors carrying on in Cookson's footsteps. Barbara Bradford Taylor, Audrey Howard and Anna Jacobs are just a few that come to mind. Catherine Cookson's own family life was the stuff of saga itself, and one modern author of the genre, Janet MacLeod Trotter, has used it as the basis for a trilogy.

Ariadne wrote a post about Trotter's Catherine (http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/2009/12/c-is-for-catherine.html)trilogy on her Reading the Past blog

[Ariadne]

I've enjoyed some of Cookson's novels but others were way over the top in melodrama. Trotter's novels are very good (I've read three) and are more consistent than Cookson's in that respect.

[annis]

With "Trotter" in mind, I'd have to say that Cookson's Tilly Trotter (http://www.amazon.com/Tilly-Trotter-Catherine-Cookson/dp/B000SHBJGY) trilogy is probably my favourite.

Tilly Trotter aka Tilly
Tilly Trotter Wed aka Tilly Wed
Tilly Trotter Widowed aka Tilly Alone

[Ariadne]

I agree, Annis, it's my favorite series of hers as well.

[annis]

Is anyone familiar with Helen Forreste (http://www.merseyguide.co.uk/b_helen%20forrester.htm)r (real name June Bhatia) another British author of HF, often with a Victorian setting? Like Cookson she grew up in extremely straitened circumstances- her comfortably-off family hit hard times during the Great Depression, and her feckless parents never learned to cope with their reduced circumstances. Helen, plain but bright, became the scapegoat for her mother, and had a very difficult life growing up. If ever I feel hard-done-by, I read a bit of one of Forester's autobiographies, and am immediately reminded (in the words of classic Kiwi comic John Clark aka Fred Dagg), that We Don't Know How Lucky We Are (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYvMeT2GC14)!