The Girl from Leam Lane: The Life and Writing of Catherine Cookson - Hardcover

This newly revised biography pieces together the uncensored details of Catherine Cookson's troubled and tempestuous life through a unique combination of previously unreleased material and Catherine's own, personal account. In addition to the original conversations between Catherine and Piers Dudgeon, it includes information contributed by some of those central figures in Catherine's life who, prior to her death, she would not allow to be interviewed. Among the new topics addressed: Catherine's possible bisexuality and the extent to which it affected her marriage; the contents of her own and her husband's wills and whether the vast sum of money left to the Catherine Cookson Foundation has, in fact, been put to the use that she dictated. It also examines the dramatisation of her books and how this kick-started the careers of actors such as Sean Bean and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Not only does this updated biography celebrate her memory; it also offers a breadth of perspective and depth of detail never before available to the millions of Catherine Cookson lovers up and down the country.

Piers Dudgeon is a writer, editor and photographer. Born in 1949, he worked for ten years as a publisher in London and then started his own company, publishing a number of bestsellers with authors as diverse as Daphne du Maurier, John Fowles, Edward de Bono, Shirley Conran and Susan Hill. Since 1989 he has worked as a journalist and written several works of non-fiction.