Catherine Cookson, born as Catherine Ann McMullen on June 27th 1906 in Tyne Dock, South Shields, County Durham; was the illegitimate child of an alcoholic; growing up she thought that her mother was her sister and was raised by her grandparents with her father a notable absentee.
Determined to pull herself out of the abject poverty of her childhood, Catherine took a laundry job at Harton Workhouse and then in 1929, moved south to run the Hastings Workhouse laundry, saving every penny to buy a large Victorian house, and then taking in lodgers to supplement her income.
While looking for information on Catherine, I found these amazing videos, and thought they were a fascinating insight into a much loved author’s life.
Here Catherine’s biographer Kathleen Jones has tracked down the identity of Catherine’s father, Alexander Davies, who was a bigamist and gambler from Lanarkshire.
The video is presented in two parts.

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