GOLDEN STRAW THE - Hardcover

Cookson, Catheri

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593021355 ISBN 13: 9780593021354

Publisher: Bantam Press, 1993

Synopsis

A historical novel following YEAR OF THE VIRGINS and spanning the years from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. It tells the story of a milliner who falls in love with a hotel guest whilst on holiday in Nice. The relationship is to bring nothing but trouble to her and will affect the whole family for generations to come.

About this title

About the Author

Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, whom she believed to be her older sister. She began work in service but eventually moved south to Hastings, where she met and married Tom Cookson, a local grammar-school master. Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer - her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award for the best regional novel of 1968 - her readership quickly spread throughout the world, and her many best-selling novels established her as one of the most popular of contemporary women novelists. After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She was appointed an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in 1997. For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998.

From the Back Cover

It all began with a straw hat. A large, broad-brimmed hat, dyed in an elusive mixture of colours to produce a distinctive shade of pale gold, it was presented to Emily Pearson by her long-time friend and employer Mabel Arkwright, milliner and modiste, whose establishment under the name of The Bandbox was situated in a discreet corner of the West End of London. And it was to her employer - known to her clientele as Madam Arkwright - that Emily owed not only the gift of The Golden Straw, as it had been named, but eventually the business itself, for her friend had more and more come to rely upon her as time went by.

After Mabel Arkwright's death, Emily, exhausted by the extra work that had fallen upon her shoulders and exasperated by Dr Steve Montane, her late employer's young and plain-spoken physician, took herself off to stay at an hotel previously and warmly recommended by Mrs Arkwright. It was now 1880, and many fashionable guests were staying at the hotel in Nice, among them Paul Anderson Steerman. It was from the balcony of his room that he first noticed The Golden Straw, worn by Emily as she arrived from England. But although it was the hat that first held his attention, his admiring gaze quickly turned to Emily herself, and throughout the time of his stay he paid her unceasing attention.

But Paul Anderson Steerman was not all he seemed to be, and was to bring nothing but disgrace and tragedy to Emily, for the traumatic months following her return to England were but a prelude to a series of events that would influence the destiny not only of her children but her grandchildren too, as the new century dawned, the First World War came and went and still she was alive to reflect on all that had resulted from the gift of the hat.

Catherine Cookson has never written a more ambitiously plotted or richly satisfying historical novel. Conceived on a panoramic scale, it brilliantly portrays a whole vein of English life from the heyday of the Victorian era to the stormy middle-years of the present century. 'The Golden Straw' is absorbing from first to last and represents a fresh triumph for this great storyteller whose work is deservedly loved and enjoyed throughout the world.

From the Inside Flap

traw, as it would be named, was a large, broad-brimmed hat presented to Emily Pearson by her long-time friend and employer Mabel Arkwright, milliner and modiste. And before long it was to her employer that Emily owed the gift of the business itself, for Mabel was in poor health and had come to rely more and more on Emily before her untimely death in 1880.

While on holiday in France, Emily and the Golden Straw attracted the eye of Paul Steerman, a guest at the hotel, and throughout his stay he paid her unceasing attention. But Paul Steerman was not all he seemed to be and he was to bring nothing but disgrace and tragedy to Emily, precipitating a series of events that would influence the destiny of not only her children but her grandchildren too.

THE GOLDEN STRAW conceived on a panoramic scale, brilliantly portrays a whole rich vein of English life from the heyday of the Victorian era to the stormy middle years of the present century.  

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593021355
• ISBN 13: 9780593021354
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496