UPSTART THE - Hardcover

Cookson, Catheri

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593028481 ISBN 13: 9780593028483

Publisher: Bantam Press, 1996

Synopsis

Suddenly risen to power and influence, Samuel Fairbrother finds himself owner of a property and master of a clutch of servants, headed by the butler, Maitland, who makes it plain that he believes Samuel to be nothing more than an upstart. So begins a clash of wills between master and man.

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

Suddenly risen to power and influence, Samuel Fairbrother, manufacturer and retailer of boots, shoes and clogs, decided that his new station in life deserved a more imposing residence, so when a thirty-four-roomed mansion, situated on the outskirts of Fellburn, became available, he made an offer, take it or leave it, and found himself the owner of a property he saw as a fitting display of his wealth and a suitable reward for his newly gained position in the business community. And that was not all, for together with the house came a clutch of servants, headed by the butler, Maitland, who at once made plain his belief that Samuel, far from being the gentleman his predecessor had been, was no more than an upstart.

So began a clash of will between master and man, at which Samuel Fairbrother discovered he was at a disadvantage, for Maitland, urbane and apparently well educated, was well skilled in the art of maintaining a position of indispensability. Fairbrother, for his part, was only too aware that he dare not dispense with Maitland's services and was forced to conclude that it was a conflict he could not easily win. And so an uneasy truce was declared between them.

As the years went by and the century turned, Samuel Fairbrother saw his children, one by one, leave the big house to make lives of their own - all except his eldest daughter, Janet, who, by means of a legacy, was enabled to shape the destiny of her father's scattered family and effect the reconciliation that he thought was impossible.

The Upstart is yet another example of Catherine Cookson's supreme ability to capture the conflict of class in the society of the late nineteenth century in a brilliant novel of page-turning readability. For more than forty years, she has enjoyed a popularity matched by few writers of her time. The Upstart will surely enhance that popularity and be enjoyed by her millions of readers throughout the world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593028481
• ISBN 13: 9780593028483
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352