Child of the North

by Piers Dudgeon; Josephine Cox;

A fascinating insight into the life of one of the country's bestselling and best-loved authors, marrying her work with her extraordinary life, and looking at her rise to fame and fortune against all the odds.


‘Everything I have touched in my life figures in my books. Every single book I write has something that has happened to me or my family or to my friends.’


Josephine Cox was born in Blackburn during its decline as the cotton-weaving capital of the world. Life was hard but characterful, the joys and tragedies of her youth later inspiring her multi-million selling novels.


One of ten children, Josephine knew poverty, hunger and charity. Between births, her mother worked in the cotton mills, her father on the roads. Sleeping up to six in a bed, her family lived in the tightly packed, working-class terraces of Blackburn. But Josephine never felt victimised or shamed.


Transforming their closed-in community into one that inspired ‘another kind of love, a deep sense of belonging’ were the characters Josephine writes about in her novels with such fondness and feeling.


But alas reality was not always so easy. Hand in hand with poverty came deprivation and domestic difficulties. At the end of her tether, Jo’s mother gathered her children around her in the bus station one day and announced they were leaving Blackburn. Josephine was fourteen years old. Not only did she lose her friends, she also lost her brothers too who were left behind. ‘Belonging to a street, to a place, to a family, is the most important thing.’ Out of this tremendous loss, Josephine’s novels were born.

Genres: Biography

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Nanny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tribute to Blackburn, the major cotton mill industrial city in England and author Josephine Cox, kept my interest more than the two novels of hers that I began to read. It included many long quotes from her novels, illustrating how well she could capture a character, place, and event as she drew from experience of growing up very poor in Blackburn. I loved the fact that it was also heavily illustrated with photos on almost every page.

[Tina Ann Scrase · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Josepine cox books and this one was especially good strongly recommend.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was moderately interesting. However I felt duped thinking this was Ms Cox's memoir. There were some interesting asides to growing up in the North of England in the 50's and 60's but the fiction writing of Ms. Cox was interspersed as illustrations of the lifestyle of the time.