Born to an impoverished young Tyneside woman in 1906, Catherine Cookson lived a life marked by cruelty and neglect. At the age of 27, she was able to buy a house of her own—a hopeful sign that the escape from her past was complete. In fact, her struggle had barely begun. Following the loss of four babies, a nervous breakdown, and confinement in a psychiatric hospital, she was brought to the brink of suicide and forced to confront the tragedies of her life.