Tilly Trotter has devotedly served Mark Sopwith at Highfield Manor for twelve years. His wife in all but name, theirs is a scandalous yet happy arrangement. But when Mark dies Tilly is left pregnant with his illegitimate child. Cast out of the manor house by Mark's spiteful grown-up daughter, Tilly is forced to face the prejudices of the local village. No stranger to hardship, she makes do as best she can but when a villager's vicious attack leaves her baby son, Willy, half blind she knows that it's time to leave her native Tyneside. A new love seems to offer an escape and so she follows her heart to America, sure that this will be the beginning of a better life. But new perils await Tilly across the ocean...
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. She has written 105 books including ten books for children and several were made into films. 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. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, on 11th June 1998. The Times" Newspaper called her "the most celebrated novelist of our time".
