Monday, 16 June 2025

27 June: Catherine Cookson

Author Catherine Cookson was born on this date in 1906. Here are facts you might not know about her.

  1. Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, South Shields and registered as Catherine Ann Davies. Her mother, Kate, was unmarried, a great source of shame in those days. Catherine was brought up by her Grandmother Rose and Step-Grandfather John McMullen, and believed for many years that her mother was her sister.

  2. She left school at 14 and went into domestic service, then got a job in a laundry at Harton Workhouse in South Shields. Her next job was actually running a laundry at Hastings Workhouse.

  3. She scrimped and saved in order to buy a large Victorian house and took in lodgers to supplement her income.

  4. One of her lodgers was a teacher called Tom Cookson. In 1940, when she was 34, she married him.

  5. She suffered several miscarriages due to a rare vascular disease, which resulted in severe depression. Her doctor advised her to take up writing to combat her depression. She helped found a writers group in Hastings and published her first book, Kate Hannigan, when she was 42.

  6. Despite a relatively late start, she became one of the most prolific British novelists with 104 novels to her name. She also wrote books as Catherine Marchant and Katie McMullen. She was the most borrowed writer from British libraries for 17 years, until she was overtaken by Jacqueline Wilson in 2002.

  7. She would research her books thoroughly. She once went down a mine, because she was writing a book in which the heroine came from a mining area.

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

  9. The first film adaptation of her work was Jacqueline in 1956, based on her book A Grand Man. It was followed by Rooney in 1958. Eighteen books were adapted for television between 1989 and 2001.

  10. She died sixteen days before her 92nd birthday, having been bedridden for several years, although she continued to write in her sickbed. Her husband Tom died just 17 days later.




Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback

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