A Dinner of Herbs - Hardcover

Cookson, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0708983251 ISBN 13: 9780708983256

Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books, 1986

Synopsis

A legacy of hatred can be a terrible force in life, over which not even an enduring love and all the fruits of material success may prevail.  Catherine Cookson explores this theme in a major novel that will absorb and enthral her readers as irresistibly as any she has written.

Roddy Greenbank was brought by his father to the remote Northumberland community of Langley in the autumn of 1807.  Within hours of their arrival, however, the father had met a violent death, and the boy was left with all memory gone of his past life.

Adopted and raised by old Kate Makepeace, Roddy found his closest companions in Hal Roystan and Mary Ellen Lee.  These three stand at the heart of a richly eventful narrative that spans the first half of the nineteenth century, their lives lastingly intertwined by the inexorable demands of a strange and somewhat cruel destiny.

A DINNER OF HERBS displays outstandingly Catherine Cookson's true storyteller's gift.

About this title

About the Author

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. Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer - her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award for the best regional novel of 1968 - her readership quickly spread throughout the world, and her many best-selling novels established her as one of the most popular of contemporary women novelists. 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. For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998.

From AudioFile

Cookson's rich tale, set in nineteenth-century Northumberland, follows the lives of Mary Ellen Lee, Hal Roystan and Roddy Greenbank. These three childhood friends are influenced by old Kate Makepeace's love and the Bannaman family's evil. Fate and hatred are palpable characters who affect not only these friends, but also their children. Reader Susan Jameson delivers an excellent presentation throughout this double-volume set. Her down-to-earth, crisp, British alto clearly distinguishes the characters and their emotions; she gives warmth and humor to old Kate's strong, dry voice. Jameson's finesse as a reader makes the listener eager to hear more of Cookson's compelling saga. J.A.H. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0708983251
• ISBN 13: 9780708983256
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 576