Catherine Cookson

An Englishwoman's battle to hang on to her family's bankrupt estate. She is Beatrice, one of four daughters of a gambling landowner who died in debt. By hook or by crook, Beatrice intends to hang on to her patrimony, her schemes including marriage and busting other people's marriage. By the author of The Year of the Virgins.--

The Golden Straw, is a large, broad-brimmed hat presented to Emily Pearson by her long-time friend and employer Mabel Arkwright. While on holiday in France, Emily and the Golden Straw attract the eye of Paul Steerman. Throughout his stay he pays her unceasing attention. However, he is not all he seems to be and he is to bring nothing but disgrace and tragedy to Emily and her family.

The story of growing up in the changing times of the Industrial Revolution of 1854. A young girl is abandoned to be raised by "Raggie Aggie" amidst the factories and slums of north England.

As a diversion from his job in his uncle's carpentry shop, newly arrived Robert Bradley begins to explore the Durham countryside. It is on one of these walks that he meets Millie, the ethereal girl-child whose odd ways and nocturnal wanderings had led her to be known as Thorman's Moth.

As Anne Martell grows into womanhood in the nineteenth-century English countryside, she is determined to overcome the legacy of her birth--as one of six illegitimate children -- a goal aided by the love of wealthy Tim Barrington.