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.
October 3, 2020
The Devil all the Time adaptation coming to Netflix
Netflix is bringing Donald Ray Pollock's The Devil All The Time to our screens. The…
