I am now utterly convinced that Cookson should be reclaimed as a feminist writer. This book is just a massive list of reasons why we need equality of the sexes. The heroine, Christine, who tells the story in first person, is a tragic example of why heteronormative patrichal values are EVIL and should be STAMPED … Continue reading Catherine Cooksonath V – Fenwick Houses

Loved Loved LOVED this. Like Wuthering Heights/Thorne Birds in that its a tale of two generations, the first one fucking everything up for the second, and JUST like Wuthering Heights and The Thorne Birds the first half of the novel is a billion times better than the first. So I'm just going to talk about … Continue reading Catherine Cooksonathon IV – The Black Candle

Wow. This is such a complete opposite to what I had expected from the Cookson 'image' that I'm not sure what to write. I really don't want to do any spoilers because I would recommend this book as a book that you should read. It's not a romance, the opposite in fact, this is a … Continue reading Catherine Cooksonathon III – Hannah Massey

You know when you don't watch Neighbours for a while, and they one day you think, 'I reet fancy a bit of Neighbours' and so you stick it on and suddenly Sky's pregnant and Harold's dead and the world has exploded and Ramsey Street has been taken over by Channel 5? That's what starting this … Continue reading Catherine Cooksonathon II – The Blind Years

The first Catherine Cookson I've ever read, this book contains every single stereotype I associate with the writer. It's 1850. Bastard daughter is taken from Newcastle (Howay the lads with a liddle fishy etc etc) to the village of Hexham by her dying mother who presents her to the 'Big Man' in the village who … Continue reading Catherine Cooksonathon I – The Girl