When the devious Lionel Filmore enters Bridget’s family life, hoping to marry into her hard-earned wealth, she has to use all of her strength and ingenuity to keep her family together. Then, when young Lily Whitmore comes to her after her husband – an overseer in one of Bridget’s factories – has wrongly been tried for his brother’s murder, Bridget has no choice but to help. If Lily’s husband didn’t kill his brother, who did? The Bondage of Love is the latest of prolific and popular U.K. novelist Catherine Cookson's books to appear in America since her death in 1998. It concerns the havoc wrought on the lives of Bill Continue reading » Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth Family, struggle with - Yes Struggle with: - all of family Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

The Black Candle: A Novel - Catherine Cookson - Google Books

A handful of simple characters touched by tragedy are the protagonists of this moving WWII romance by the ever-popular Cookson, who died in 1998; this is the fourth of her books to be published Continue reading » Veteran storyteller Cookson (The Bannaman Legacy, The Moth once again captures the stratified society of Northumberland in the late 19th century. When the local pastor's daughter, tomboyish Nancy Ann Continue reading » Cookson's 100th book, posthumously published, rounds off her oeuvre, but is more memorable for its landmark status than its content. Set in England's Northumberland countryside in the early 20th Continue reading » In this story, Bridget, the heroine, *expects* her protege, Joseph, to have inherited his biological father's character flaws, even though he was raised by a stepfather. Once Joseph realized who his father was and how he had acted, he seemed helpless to prevent himself from following suit and making a similar choice (what is often called a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'.)Life was unfair to women,'' thinks Agnes Conway, Cookson's latest naive but indomitable and likable turn-of-the-century heroine whose options seem to be a marriage of convenience or bitter Continue reading » I enjoyed the story for much of the book, but either this one was too long for me or too depressing! The characters, especially Bridget, were realistically drawn and I was caught up in their life stories from the start. As I continued reading I hoped for some redemption for them, some kind of happiness out of their hopelessness. Little is known inside the Adam and Eve storyteller, though the oriental transcendental how English families offspring their maker. To like Romance on this note; we certainly see the difference. Needless to say, the acting across the line is terrific. I thought Parker had a bad temper on "Inspector Lynley" - as Lynley he comes off mild-mannered compared to his performance in this. He's incredibly young here, too, and very handsome. Yorkshire in the 1880's: Joe Skinner marries Lily Whitmore, the woman he has long admired, to give a name to her illegitimate child by Lionel Fillmore, the opportunistic son of an impoverished aristocrat. Lionel, however, has his sights set on Victoria, the naive cousin of hard-working Bridget Mordaunt, and the wealth he wrongly assumes is hers. When Joe's shiftless brother Fred threatens his marriage plans, Lionel murders him and the blame falls on Joe. Bridget's warm regard for Joe sets her on a quest to prove his innocence, the pursuit of which reveals the sordid manipulations and evil that surround Lionel. Just when Lionel believes his crime will never be discovered, Douglas, his gentle sculptor brother finds the murder weapon---and the killer's identity.

The Black Candle (TV Movie 1991) - Plot - IMDb

The script could have been better - this is one story that might have benefited from being done in two parts if not more. We don't get much buildup to some of the events; they happen rather suddenly. First in the Premier Plus! series of large-print books is the late British author Catherine Cookson's Riley, published for the first time in the U.S. Cookson wrote over 70 books during her Continue reading » British readers have been familiar with this early novel by Cookson for five decades, but this reissue will please American fans who crave the late author's sudsy historical novels. John Continue reading » So a pattern began to form that would shape the lives of generations to come, a pattern of some good and some great evil, but all of it inexorably linking Bridget ever more closely with the Filmores and their house as well as the Skinners who work for Bridget. But it is Bridget who stands firmly at its centre, doing her best to shape the destinies of all around her over three generations. Although it should have ended with them and their story because their kids were messy. How do you go from the sweetest couple of the century to Joseph and Amy?

The latest from Cookson ( The Love Child ; The Bailey Chronicles ) is a perfunctorily plotted novel of tragedy and romance. After his father's death in 1926, five-year-old Joe Jebeau and his Continue reading » This is kind of a "what goes around comes around" type story, with Parker playing a vicious man with a dreadful temper who comes up against his sculptor brother, his father, and the determined Bridget, even as he victimizes his wife and romances a woman 30 years his senior (Sian Phillips).

Catherine Cookson - Wikipedia Catherine Cookson - Wikipedia

What differentiates a true lady from a common woman? Is it blood, environment, education or simply hauteur? The late, prolific Cookson deftly explores these questions in this dizzying Continue reading » In her first contemporary romance, Cookson ( The Parson's Daughter ) introduces a thoroughly delightful extended family. Fiona Nelson is a 28-year-old widow with three children when Bill Bailey Continue reading » Humour, toughness, resolution and generosity are Cookson virtues . . . In the specialised world of women's popular fiction, Cookson has created her own territory Helen Dunmore, The Times When the brutal Lionel gets Lily Whitmore (Cathy Sandford) pregnant, Joe Skinner marries her to give the child a name. Lionel is out to marry Victoria Mordaunt (Tara Fitzgerald), a guileless young woman whose aunt, Bridget (Samantha Bond) is a successful businesswoman. Hatred and duty and their effect on an English family in 1960 are the themes of Cookson's 14th novel (after The Maltese Angel). Ill-matched Daniel and Winifred Coulson have become enemies. Their Continue reading »The tragedy of the story is that much of the paths chosen by the characters were preventable. There are a few characters who are admirable, and who triumph over their circumstances. Joseph's elderly friend Bertha Hanratty learns to cope with her sadness. Mr. Bright remains steadfastly loyal to his difficult and often unlovable, elderly employer. A dark family drama that begins in 1968 and spans 15 years, The House of Women is the most recent British import from the late Catherine Cookson (The Bondage of Love; A Ruthless Need; etc.). Emma Continue reading » The film focuses on two sets of brothers in 1880s Yorkshire: the upper class but impoverished Lionel (Parker) and Douglas Filmore (Robert Hines) and the lower class Skinner brothers, Joe (Gaddas) and Fred (Bob Smeaton). Very well acted. My problem is they never resolved the the story arc around Joe who was still in jail and it ended with Lionel's grave stone being worked on. I had read Catherine Cookson so many years ago, and didn't remember her writing making much of an impact on me at the time. Reading tastes often change over several years and I decided to give her a whirl.

The Black Candle - Penguin Books UK

Cookson may have died in 1998, but readers are not yet compelled to bid her a final good-bye. If this posthumous offering, with its repetitive plotting and murky prose, is not up to the writer's Continue reading »