This is a real life detective story, tracking down the missing father of one of Britain's most famous authors - the father she didn't want anyone to know about literature out of the personal tragedies of her working class upbringing and early life in the industrial North East. Her biographer gives this account of her search to discover the truth of Cookson's childhood and the mystery of her father's identity. As the story unfolds, the reader is led to a deeper understanding of the demons that drove Cookson to become one of the most popular novelists of her day. It is a story of terrible poverty, of harsh lessons learnt generation after generation, but also of hope and eventual reconciliation.

Britain's most widely read author of the late twentieth century, Catherine Cookson published more than 100 books, including The Fifteen Streets, The Black Velvet Gown, and Katie Mulhollond. Set in England's industrial northeast, her novels depict the social, economic, and emotional hardships of that area. In the first essay collection devoted to Cookson, the contributors examine what Cookson's memoirs and historical fiction mean to readers, including how her fans contribute to her position in the cultural imaginary; constructions of gender, class, and English and Irish identity in her work; the importance of place in her novels; Cookson's place in the heritage industry; and television adaptations of Cookson's works. Cookson's work tackled topics that were still taboo in the early post-World War II era, such as domestic abuse, rape, and incest. This collection places Cookson in historical context and shows how skillful she was at pushing generic boundaries.

Genealogist Keith Gregson takes the reader on a whistle-stop tour of quirky family stories and strange ancestors rooted out by amateur and professional family historians. Each lively entry tells the story behind each discovery and then offers a brief insight into how the researcher found and then followed up their leads, revealing a range of chance encounters and the detective qualities required of a family historian. For example, one researcher discovered that his great-great-grandfather, as a child, was carried across the main street of West Hartlepool on the back of the famous tightrope walker Blondin. The Victorian newspaper report said that the rope had been tied between two chimney pots. Research into the author’s own family revealed that one of his nineteenth-century ancestors lost his leg in a Midlands coal-mining accident, and that the amputated leg was buried in the local cemetery – to be joined by the rest of him on his final demise. A Viking in the Family is full of similar unexpected discoveries in the branches of family trees.

Catherine Cookson author of The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award, leading to her readership quickly spread worldwide, with her many bestselling novels establishing her as one of the most popular contemporary authors. Orphaned at a tender age, Millie Forester is adopted by "Raggie Aggie" Winkowski, and she suffers misfortune and misplaced love as she grows to adulthood side by side with Aggie's son, Ben, whose love for Millie increases over the years.

Grace Rouse tried in vain to love her husband but found she could not. Looking for love elsewhere, she found herself torn between a man who could give her children and a man who passionately desired children but could only give them his name.

A cloth bag containing ten copies of the title.