The Silent Lady - Catherine Cookson

The woman who entered the offices of the distinguished firm of London solicitors Alexander Armstrong & Son one morning in 1955 was clearly a vagrant. Her clothes were filthy and torn, and the rather peculiar hat she was wearing had most definitely seen better days. Furthermore, the creature (for how else could such a person be described?) was evidently simple-minded, for she was unable to speak properly, being able only to mutter the odd word. The receptionist was sure that the woman had come into the office by mistake, and was keen to get her back through the door and back onto the streets ... more

I’m sure we all have an idea of what a Catherine Cookson novel is, probably fuelled by those ITV mini-series in stock period costumes starring a former soap actress. We expect an historical romance – and as everyone knows, ‘history’ means boring and ‘romance’ means something slushy like a Mills and Boon. So we stealthily avoid the ‘C’ section in the local library, leaving our grannies and elderly neighbours to fight it out with handbags to borrow the latest Catherine Cookson. Well, this time, I was at the front of the queue for the latest (and ... more