The Simple Soul And Other Stories - Tapa blanda

This treasure trove of talent is set against the background of places already familiar to Catherine Cookson's countless readers - the North-East, the South Coast and London, with a time-scale stretching from the 1920's to the present day.

In the title story, a disillusioned husband decides to call on an office colleague he has always slightly despised, and finds himself having to re-evaluate his own family relationships in the light of what he discovers in the other's home. In the three stories that make up 'The Forbidden Word', the first set in the 1920s, the second in the 1950s and the third in the1980s, Catherine Cookson traces the changes in attitudes to marriage and pregnancy that have taken place in the last eighty years.

In other stories a shy bachelor begins to make friends for the first time in his life among the people who like himself have taken refuge from the Blitz in the London Underground, and a much put-upon young woman who makes up her own mind to escape from her family's domestic exploitation of her. The reader catches a glimpse behind the scenes in a large department store, and learns of the havoc that a husband's passion for cricket can cause.

Set against backgrounds of the north-east, the south coast and London, and ranging in time from the 1920s to the present day, here are ten stories from the pen of the incomparable Catherine Cookson.

In these compelling tales we discover once again the magical storytelling ability that has made Catherine Cookson one of the world's most popular writers. A husband is forced to re-examine his family relationships; life behind the scenes in a department store is revealed; friendship blossoms in the London Underground during the Blitz. And in an ambitious set of three stories, Cookson traces the changes she has witnessed during her life in the way we view marriage and pregnancy.

The stories in this new collection have all the qualities that Catherine Cookson's admirers have enjoyed in her earlier books, and they will introduce her readers to a whole new gallery of true-to-life characters.