The Thorman Inheritance

by Catherine Cookson

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.

293 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1989

About the author

Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, who Catherine believed was her older sister. Catherine began work in service but eventually moved south to Hastings, where she met and married Tom Cookson, a local grammar-school master.

Although she was 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 quickly spread throughout the world, and her many best-selling novels established her as one of the most popular contemporary woman novelist. She received an OBE in 1985, was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993, and was appointed an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in 1997.

For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne.