Product Description: The intertwined issues of religious freedom, religious rights and church-state relations are a major issue around the world. In fact, much of the story of human history is the story of quests for freedom by different religious groups in different places at different times...read more

In nineteenth century Northumberland, Nancy Ann Howard agrees to marry Dennison Harpcore, a wealthy estate owner, only to discover a secret that changes her life forever

Catherine Cookson was one of the world's most beloved writers. Her books have sold millions of copies, and her characters and their stories have captured the imagination of readers around the globe. She passed away in 1998, but luckily for her fans, Cookson left behind several unpublished novels, among them the compelling Silent Lady. The story begins with a shocking revelation, delivered by a disheveled woman who presents herself at the offices of a respectable law firm in London. At first the receptionist suspects this mysterious woman is a vagrant; the clothes that hang on her frail body are filthy, and she seems unable to speak. When the woman requests to see the firm's senior partner, Alexander Armstrong, she is shown the door -- but when Mr. Armstrong learns the name of his visitor, all the office staff is amazed by his reaction. For Irene Baindor is a woman with a past, and her emergence from obscurity signals the unraveling of a mystery that had baffled the lawyer for twenty-six years. To those around her, Irene Baindor had been a young woman of class and musical talent, the wife of a wealthy and powerful man, and the mother to a beloved baby boy. But behind closed doors she was a woman with a dangerous husband, a husband who would one day act with such cruelty that Irene would be left without most of her voice and memory. It was then that Irene disappeared. What Irene had been doing, and where she had been, gradually emerges over the following weeks, as the unlikely benefactors who had befriended her step forward to reveal the remarkable life she has led. Fans of Cookson's novels, with their larger themes of romantic love and class conflict, will be delightedby the mystery and surprise of The Silent Lady. Drawing from her own firsthand experience of working-class life between two world wars and in the 1950s, Cookson once again displays the irresistible plotting, scene-setting, and characterization that have made her an icon of historical and romance fiction.

When Simon Steel dies without instructions for control of the family estate, his daughter Beatrice stops at nothing in her mission to be named the mistress of Pine Hurst

Product Description: Catherine Cookson was one of the world's most beloved writers. Her books have sold millions of copies, and her characters and their stories have captured the imaginations of readers around the globe. Now, available for the first time in this country, comes one of Cookson's earliest and most stirring historical romances: The Fifteen Streets...read more

Product Description: Originally published: Great Britain: Bantam Press, 1993.

Product Description: Spanning the period from the 1880s to World War II, this wonderful historical novel tells the story of Emily Ratcliffe, whose fateful choices as a young woman exact a terrible toll not only on her own life, but on the lives of those dearest to her.

Product Description: "Originally published in Great Britain by Bantam Press ... as the Gillyvors"--T.p. verso.

Product Description: Even the approach of Christmas, 1913, fails to excite the restless Agnes Conway, the twenty-two-year-old manager of her feckless father's adjoining sweet and tobacconist shops.  There are dark secrets in Arthur Conway's past, and these come tragically to light when Agnes's younger sister becomes pregnant by one of the notorious Felton brothers...read more

Fatherless at five, Joseph Jebeau grows up to defend his country against Hitler's mad ambitions and to defend himself against his mother's ruthlessness and secrets from the past

Product Description: Shocking tragedy unexpectedly frees a young man to pursue the love and happiness he thought were unattainable in this family saga by Catherine Cookson, who remains even after her death one of the world's best loved historical novelists...read more

Marrying a professional dancer, prosperous farmer Ward Gibson is stunned by the murderous jealousy of Daisy Mason, a young neighbor who believes Ward was promised to her

Despite the expectations that he will marry well even after being blinded in the war, Michael Wallingham alienates members of his wealthy family by turning to his nurse, Elizabeth Ducksworth, for solace.

Product Description: Master of romantic fiction Catherine Cookson is world renowned for her enthralling tales of love that triumphs over impossible odds. In Kate Hannigan, her very first novel, Catherine Cookson introduces us to the enduring story of her most charismatic heroine...read more

Annabella Lagrange grew up believing she was the sheltered only daughter of a wealthy family. As a child she did not find it unusual that her parents lived at opposite ends of their magnificent country estate. But at seventeen Annabella is horrified to learn that she is not a lady-to-be, but the daughter of a local whorehouse madam.

After escaping from a disastrous marriage and becoming a best-selling author, Maisie gets married for the second time to a man who truly loves her, but the next few years see their own share of sorrows.

A single-volume, U.S. publication of two works by a popular British writer includes Hamilton and Goodbye Hamilton and follows the adventures of Maisie, from her imaginative and active childhood through her tumultuous adult years. By the author of The Cultured Handmaiden. 25,000 first printing.

Growing up amid the strict mores and stultifying traditions of Edwardian England's Redford Hall, Annabella Lagrange is forced to hide her father's terrible secret and turns to her beloved cousin, Stephen, until a terrible truth about her identity forces her to recreate her life. 25,000 first printing.

Product Description: This collection of poems draws on many themes familiar to the readers of Catherine Cookson's novels. This is her final work to be published and shows Cookson at her most intimate and inspirational.

Drawn to the beautiful girl he encounters amid the squalor of the Fifteen Streets slums, Dr. Rodney Prince, a wealthy man trapped in an unhappy marriage, wants nothing more than to rescue Kate Hannigan, who has suffered at the hands of her vicious, bullying father and John Herrington, the notorious seducer who had left her pregnant and alone, in a new edition of the author's first novel. 35,000 first printing.

Product Description: This collection of poems draws on many themes familiar to the readers of Catherine Cookson's novels: love, work, class and the beauty of nature. She also shares more personal thoughts, reflections on her own writing, marriage to her beloved Tom and life in the north of England...read more

Over 140 alphabetically arranged entries examine key issues relating to freedom of religion around the world. (view table of contents)

Alison Read, orphaned when she was two years old, had for some years lived and worked with Paul Aylmer, her appointed guardian. Paul, an experienced antique dealer whose business thrived in the south coast town of Sealock, had come to rely on Alison, who had quickly learned the trade.But when he had asked her to value the contents of Beacon Ride, a chain of events was set off that led to the exposure of a secret he had for years managed to conceal. As a result, Alison's relationship with Paul comes under threat and she knows that only by confronting the situation head-on will her ambitions be realized. Part-mystery, part love story, and with fascinating glimpses of the world of antiques in the 1960's, The Lady of My Left displays yet another facet of Catherine Cookson's remarkable talent.

Product Description: There were many who said that Riley appeared to be older than his years. He finished school at an early age, leaving a harsh childhood behind him, brimming with optimism and secure in the knowledge that his teacher, Fred Beardsley, had faith in him...read more

Product Description: When Connie buys a house on the moors, she has to negotiate with the abrupt Vincent O'Connor. She soon discovers that mystery is a way of life for Vincent, who has an increasing influence on her life. Then the shocking truth about the man with whom she shared many years of her life comes to light...read more