Money was tight in rural Fellburn in the 1880s, and this perhaps explained why Hector Stewart, only two years after the death of his wife, announced to his children that he was to marry Moira Conelly, a wealthy distant relative from Ireland.But Moira had not been entirely honest about her background or her finances, and had convinced herself she would be marrying into landed gentry, complete with a lifestyle to which she felt entitled. It was with surprise, therefore, that she first saw the run down farm that would be her new home . . .

Author Biography

Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, whom she believed to be her older sister. She 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 bestselling novels established her as one of the most popular of contemporary women novelists. After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She was appointed an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in 1997. For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998.