CATHERINE COOKSON - Kate Hannigan's Girl

Set in the English countryside in the early twentieth century, Kate Hannigan is happily married to Dr Rodney Prince, who has willingly accepted her illegitimate daughter Annie.

Annie grows into a beautiful and free-spirited woman and blessed with silver-blond braids and a lightehearted disposition, she enjoys a life her mother never had. She is surrounded by material comforts and a loving family, protected from the poverty and shame her mother endured in the slums. But as Cookson fans have come to expect, no good life can go unmarred by heartache. Vicious rumours concerning Kate's past will not go away and Annie is to face the insidious threat that revives memories of the poverty and narrowness of the life they had left behind.

Annie soon draws the interest of both friends and neighbours. She falls in love with Terence MacBane, the wayward but brilliant mathematician and the elusive boy next door. But there are those who would keep them apart: her childhood friend Brian Stannard is determined to have her for himself, and her more worldly rival, Cathleen Davidson, harbours a bitter jealousy that will prove dangerous to all. Tormented by unrequited love, the revelation of her own illegitimacy and the demands of her deep-seated faith, Annie discovers that sometimes love is not enough – she must fight for what she wants.