Pure as the Lily [Paperback]

Catherine Cookson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Little, Brown (1985)
• ASIN: B000OVSOVW
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

More About the Author

Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, whom she believed to be her older sister. She began work in service but eventually moved south to Hastings, where she met and married Tom Cookson, a local grammar-school master.

Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer - her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award for the best regional novel of 1968 - her readership quickly spread throughout the world, and her many best-selling novels established her as one of the most popular of contemporary women novelists.

After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She was appointed an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in 1997.

For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Starts With A Bang But Sizzles Out, November 1, 2009

By 

Tara (Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Pure as the Lily (Hardcover)

This started out as a five star book, focusing on a teenage girl named Mary in 1930s England. Mary has an incredibly controlling, domineering mother, a frightened wimp of a brother, and a father that doesn't seem to know what to do with himself. The drama and scandal enfolds with Mary getting pregnant by a man old enough to be her dad. This has serious repurcussions as her dad in a fit of anger attacks Mary's lover and future husband. A bout in jail leaves him even worse off and causes Mary's mother to become even more bitter than she already is.

Part two takes place in the 40s and focuses on Jimmy, the brother. I didn't like him. It dropped to a four star book here. His character is weak and sniveling. Very late in the story, he finally sticks up to his cruel wife and controlling mother, but ends up becoming dependent upon Mary when his mother commits a most appalling crime. At this point, Mary's husband and step son are dead and she is a lone woman supporting a daughter, a cousin, her dad, and now a brother and a baby. Seems like Mary is never to lead a happy life.

Part three is where it hits the three star mark with no possibility of rebound. Cookson's style just loses something when the time is the 1970s. Her 1970s settings seem to always focus on young women and the debate of losing or retaining their virginity. Tho about Mary's granddaughter, it lost me here.

Had the book stayed on the track it was taking in part one, I would have been thrilled. I was on the edge of my seat in part one. The rest of the book paled in comparision.