The Round Tower

Vanessa Ratcliffe was just sixteen - and even though she had a convent education she had a provocative manner that drew envious eyes in her direction. She lived in one of the big houses on Brampton Hill, for the Ratcliffes, a powerful and avaricious family, were considered 'big' folk in the town.

Angus Cotton was a rough diamond who lived in Ryder's Row, down among the goods yards and dirty streets. But as an engineer at Affleck and Tate he was worth his weight in gold; and the manager, Vanessa's father, knew it but hated to admit it. Angus had ambitious plans for his future, and although these plans had never included Vanessa, events were to draw them together...

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. At the age of forty she began writing about the lives of the working-class people with whom she had grown up, using the place of her birth as the background to many of her novels.

Although 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 soon began to spread throughout the world. Her novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages and more than 5o,ooo,ooo copies of her books have been sold in Corgi alone. Thirteen of her novels have been made into successful television dramas, and more are planned.

Catherine Cookson's many bestselling novels have 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 and her husband Tom now live near Newcastle-upon-Tyne.