Good book by this great author - it is such a shame she died and we can no longer look forward to any more books. Divna drama koja slikovito prikazuje englesko društvo pred početak II svj. rata i nakon njega. U centru radnje je misteriozna žena koja je žrtva porodičnog nasilja, odbacena od svih i koja se bori za egzistenciju u surovom svijetu. This is the first grown-up novel I read. My mother gave it to me when I asked her for a good book as a teen and this is the book that got me hooked to reading. Ever few years I sit down and read it again and marvel at Mrs. Cookson's talent at weaving an exceptional plot with nail-biting cliffhangers at the end of every chapter and wish I had such talent!

The Silent Lady by Catherine Cookson | Goodreads The Silent Lady by Catherine Cookson | Goodreads

This time of prosperity is demonstrated by a series of bigger and bigger houses. First, they live on the set of Mad Men:At the same time, Robert Bradley is a working man, mostly skilled as a carpenter. His father has died, and his long-lost uncle offers him a job in his wood-working shop and habitation to patch up a past family squabble. At one time, Robert finds out, his uncle was engaged to Robert's mother, but she fell in love with his younger brother and married him instead. A grudge was held even after his own marriage and birth of a daughter. Now the uncle wants to make amends, and Robert takes the job. I liked how the characters in the book tried to make their circumstances better and reached out to others to help them.

The Round Tower - Penguin Books UK

Era: 1950s. And 1960s. And maybe 1970s. Also maybe 2150. They’re in some time warp where they never age and yet five hundred years of the viewer’s lifetime pass before their eyes as they watch! Haven’t read any Catherine Cookson for a long time but have read all of them in the past And have a complete Catherine Cookson set of books There's some line in Anne of Green Gables where Anne describes the ocean as something that blows out the cobwebs of her soul. This is what Catherine Cookson books (at her best) do for me. I'm always sort of driven up and outward when reading my favourites by her, particularly The Moth and Fifteen Streets, and she expresses in me a wonderful sort of restlessness. Maybe its that she's able to pen words to abstract feelings. I dunno. I just know I'm grateful to have read her books. The critics are justified, but at the end of the day, sometimes you gotta accept the formula, roll with it, and see it for the web of feelings it is. Even though he complains to his friend that he doesn’t have quite the crush on her that he used to, because she’s no longer ‘untouched,’ he agrees to marry her so that her kid isn’t born in infamy. It’s very sweet of him. He even gets a 50s Regulation Pair of Twin Beds installed in his bedroom so it can stay nice and chaste the way the 50s like it.Romantic interest(s): Angus Cotton, an employee of her dad’s who marries her to save her reputation. Set in mid-1950's England, this story tells of the wealthy, socially upwardly-progressive Ratcliffe family. Their youngest daughter, seventeen year old Vanessa, feels alienated from her selfish parents, who are more interested in their eldest daughter's upcoming marriage into one of their town's old families. An old friend of the family, who is himself trapped in a loveless marriage, makes love to Vanessa one night, and she becomes pregnant, but won't reveal who the father is. Her parents are sure it is an employee of the Ratcliffe's, Angus Cotton, who hotly denies this and quits his job to go and start his own business. ... This story is a compelling read - one of her best - and it's difficult to say much without giving too much away. The author's writing style is fantastic and touching genius as the characters pull along the reader to the very end. And of course, once Angus has sex with someone from the upper class, things start going well for him, and even though that is not quite the cause and effect the movie was going for, that’s what it looks like to the viewer, so thanks for THAT.

Catherine Cookson - Wikipedia Catherine Cookson - Wikipedia

But despite all of the above, she was the top 20 most widely read Bristish author. She wrote 103 books under her own name and 2 under a pen name.The Abortion Act was passed in 1967 and was obviously of interest to Catherine Cookson, a pioneer of women's issues. Another indicator of the year: Max Bygraves 'Tulips From Amsterdam' 78 rpm was #3 in 1958, From the very start, this story had me hooked and although we don't see much from Irene's point of view, it is about her - and what a wonderful hero she is. We see her faced with an unbearable life and how she survives...I don't give spoilers. However, the rest of the characters are all influenced by her in many ways - from love to hate to sorrow to adoration. She is an amazing character and although she is 'silent' she has a very strong voice. This is an old novel (my copy was published in 1968) full of family scandal and rags to riches.. or riches to rags. The scandalous issues begin with upstarts, bitter neighbors, infidelity, and underage sex and end with unhappy marriages, in laws from hell, unwed mothers, and suicide. Vanessa is sixteen, well to do, and very sexually curious and well, it is the sixties. Needless to say, some bloke is more than willing to help Vanessa satisfy her curiosity and before you know it, she is "with bairn." Her upstart parents cannot force her to divulge who the father is and choose to lay the blame at Angus Cotton's feet, the son of their maid. Angus's mother and sister attempt to talk him out of being a good samitarian but much to their dismay, he marries the pampered Vanessa. On the wedding night, after he chases out his drunk mom’s huge drunk lower-class party full of people who don’t want to better themselves, Vanessa gives him a chaste 50s kiss that turns into a superhot 50s pulp kiss. Finally he pushes her away, overwhelmed! Woo! You go, you crazy kids and your sexual tension! The best thing about Catherine Cookson's books is how she brings characters alive within moments. I love the way they are 'real' - whether good or bad.

The Round Tower by Catherine Cookson | Goodreads

Example: reading The Lord of the Rings is a visceral, gut-wrenching thing for yours truly. There are chapters where JRRT rips my heart from my chest cavity, jumping up & down on my feels like a sadistic mofo. Yet such woebegone sadness is NOT A CONSTANT. There are brief periods of hope, contentment, & (most important) an overall aura of "Yes, it hurts, but I KNOW these people will make it to something better." Even old-skool rippers like This Other Eden or Stormfire, while epic in their suffering, embrace that oh-so-important glimmer, that pride in an as-yet unrealized period of "this too shall pass." I enjoyed every one of them and also the made for TV films that confirmed that the characters where just as I had imagined when I was reading these stories.The good news is that Angus has finally found an era that allows him to demonstrate his doucheness through fashion in a way his nifty 50s suits never did: This was a gripping tale of a women who had been greatly abused, gained the courage to escape, and finally found her voice through an adopted family of friends who loved her and respected her and helped her to heal. How the main character, Renee/Irene, looked upon and loved Bella not as a grumpy, stumpy, ugly woman but as beautiful, loving & caring and a mother figure. My first Cookson was 'The Whip', & it contained what I thought to be an inordinate amount of Life Suffering(tm)...however, I liked the MCs & assumed the onslaught was in homage to Victorian fiction where the poor heroine barely survives to reach her HEA. I still like 'The Whip' & remember it fondly. But I've since discovered that Cookson's copious Life Suffering style isn't making a statement about the genre -- no, it's her authorly kink. The endless pile-on of gloom, doom, & shitty life events NEVER ENDS, & I can't deal with such a thundercloud.