Catherine Cookson

The Upstart is a new historical novel from Catherine Cookson set amidst the roiling social currents of rural England at the turn of the century. Risen to power and influence, Samuel Fairbrother, a shrewd and newly monied manufacturer and retailer of boots, shoes, and clogs, has decided that his new station in life deserves a more imposing residence. When a thirty-four-room mansion on the outskirts of Fellburn becomes available, he snaps up the estate...

Aggie Winkowski, a Polish immigrant who traded in rags and old clothes, takes in seven-year-old Millie Forester, who was suddenly abandoned by her panic-striken mother in an industrial English city. What began as a compassionate expediency led to the establishment of a relationship that would mold Millie's destiny and give new meaning to Aggie's life.

As ANna 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 wealthy Timothy Barrington.

Bridget Gether's parents were killed in the wartime Blitz and she had lived with the Overmeers at Balderstone since she was a child. Unaware that she had been manipulated into agreeing to marry their son Laurence, only an encounter with the son of a neighbouring farmer opened her eyes to the possibility she was making a mistake.