The Silent Lady - Hardcover

Cookson, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593044665 ISBN 13: 9780593044667

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2001

Synopsis

Her major new novel, written in 1997 when the most remarkable author of our time was nearing the end of her life. The woman who presented herself at the offices of the respectable firm of London solicitors was, the receptionist decided, clearly a vagrant who had been sleeping on the streets. When she asked to see the firm s senior partner, Alexander Armstrong, she was at first shown the door but then the entire office staff were disrupted by Mr Armstrong s reaction when he learned his visitor s name clearly Irene Baindor was a woman with a past, and her emergence from obscurity was to signal the unravelling of a mystery that had baffled the lawyer for twenty-six years. What Irene the silent lady of the title had been doing, and where she had been, gradually emerged over the following weeks as Armstrong met the unlikely benefactors who had befriended her and helped her to build a useful and satisfying life in a sheltered environment. Now, at last, she was able to confront her tortured and violent past and find great happiness and contentment with the help of old friends and some newer ones. Displaying all the skills in plotting, scene-setting and characterization that made her Britain s best-loved storyteller, and drawing on her own first-hand experience of working-class life between two world wars and the 1950s, The Silent Lady is a fitting tribute to an irreplacable author."

About this title

Review:

A considerable number of her dedicated readers were saddened by the news of Catherine Cookson's death--not just for the loss of a much-loved woman, but also for the stilling of one of the most distinctive and reliable voices in fiction. Therefore the news that there were nine posthumous novels with her publisher was received with much pleasure. And rather than being evidence of the author winding down, they have shown that Cookson was ever refining her characterisation and the consummate plotting for which she was so noted. The Silent Lady has all of her characteristic touches, most notably a heroine at odds with herself and those around her.

At a distinguished firm of London solicitors, a female vagrant who appears to have been sleeping on the streets, presents herself. With her filthy clothes and inability to speak, it's no surprise that she is initially shown the door, until the firm's senior partner, Alexander Armstrong, learns the name of his visitor. Irene Baindor is a woman with a remarkable past and her reappearance is the signal for the ending of a mystery several decades old. Irene (the eponymous "Silent Lady") has encountered benefactors who have helped her to rebuild her life. And now she is able to come to terms with a brutal, disturbed past and attain happiness with both old and new friends.

As with all later Cookson books, it is difficult to predict the course that her constantly surprising narrative will take--clearly, the author had decided to retire some well-worn formats and strike out in entirely new directions. Although the customary romantic elements are well in evidence here, this is essentially a mystery in which the reader is swept through an intriguing narrative that moves from darkness into light. Irene represents something new in Cookson heroines, and her presence renders this one of the author's most thoughtful and affecting narratives. --Barry Forshaw

Book Description:

Written in 1997 when this remarkable author was nearing the end of her life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0593044665
• ISBN 13: 9780593044667
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352