With the help of material only made available since Catherine's death, Piers Dudgeon lays bare the true nature of this complex and fascinating woman. Close family contributed material they had always refused to share when Catherine was alive, and Catherine's written records, letters, and diaries, only recently lodged in the Catherine Cookson archive at the University of Boston, were made available. What emerges is a documentary portrait, illustrated with contemporary photographs, that explains for the first time the fears that cast Catherine into the nightmare of mental breakdown.