The Moth

As World War I approaches, Foreshaw Park, the rundown estate of the once-wealthy Thorman family, becomes the setting for the burgeoning romance between the Thorman's elder daughter, Agnes, and Robert Bradley, a hired hand

'Catherine Cookson's novels are about hardship, the intractability of life and of individuals, the struggle first to survive and next to make sense of one's survival. Humour, toughness, resolution and generosity are Cookson virtues, in a world which she often depicts as cold and violent. Her novels are weighted and driven by her own early experiences of illegitimacy and poverty. This is what gives them power. In the specialised world of women's popular fiction, Cookson has created her own territory' - Helen Dunmore, The Times