The Moth

When Robert Bradley gave up his job in the Jarrow shipyards to work at his uncle's old-established carpenter's shop in a small village, he found that life with domineering Uncle John did not always prove easy. As a diversion, he began exploring the Durham countryside and it was there that he had his first strange encounter with Millie, the ethereal girl-child whose odd ways and nocturnal wanderings had led to her being known locally as 'Thorman's Moth'.

The time came when a dramatic turn in Robert's affairs brought him into a close involvement with the Thormans of Foreshaw and especially with the eldest daughter, Agnes, who alone of the family loved and protected the frail, unworldly Millie. But this was 1913, and anything beyond the most formal relationship had to face the barriers and injustices of a rigid social hierarchy that was soon to perish in the flames of war.

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 a local grammar-school master. Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer - in 1968 her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award - her readership quickly spread throughout the world and her many bestselling novels have established her as the best-loved of contemporary writers. 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 and her husband Tom lived near Newcastle upon Tyne. She died shortly before her ninetysecond birthday, in June 1998.