Kate Hannigan's Girl

By Catherine Cookson

Book Overview

It is the early 1920s and Kate Hannigan is happily married to Dr Rodney Prince, who has willingly accepted her illegitimate daughter, Annie, as the eldest child of their household. Everything seems to be going well for the Prince family, but soon spiteful rumours about Kate's earlier life seem to haunt both her and Annie - an insidious threat that revives memories of the poverty and narrowness of life in the Fifteen Streets district that they have so recently left behind.

Annie will be faced with some of the problems that earlier beset her mother: religious prejudice and a choice between two different ways of life - the comfortable middle-class existence offered by Brian Stannard and the uncertain prospects of Terence McBane, a brilliant mathematician from the underprivileged world Annie and her mother have just escaped.

In the sequel to Kate Hannigan, Cookson's first published novel, Kate's daughter Annie must find the strength and maturity to overcome the troubles that threaten to engulf her.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0552145815
• ISBN13: 9780552145817
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Corgi Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.4" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Kate Hannigans Girl

The Catherine Cookson books, all of them, are amazing. Every one captivates me and I cannot stop reading them They make me stay on my Stairmaster way beyond my customary one hour workout. We are so lucky that Cookson wrote over 100 of them. I have read about 20 so far and there are others lined up. I am just going to have to go to the ones I have so that I can start ordering the other ones. Is there life after Catherine Cookson?

Romantic Love and Class Conflict

Set in the early twentieth century, this novel tells the story of the eldest daughter of Kate Hannigan, Annie. We first meet Annie when she is 14, growing up in a loving, prosperous family in the English countryside, but Annie is always aware of her mother's upbringing among grinding poverty, and the fact that Annie is illegitimate. Kate has since married a loving husband, Dr. Prince, but their background is never far from their thoughts.When she is 19, Annie falls in love with the mysterious boy next door, Terence Macbane who has earned a seat at Oxford even though his family is very poor. Annie's so-called friend, Cathleen Davidson, is jealous of Annie, and tries to destroy her relationship with Terence. Annie's childhood friend Brian has long assumed that she would marry him, and his possessiveness is cloying and upsetting to Annie. Annie is also tormented and conflicted by her faith, and has vowed to become a nun, in spite of the wishes of her family.Although the plot is full of melodrama, it works up to a successful and satisfying conclusion with love overcoming evil, and all the unpleasant characters put to rest. If you enjoy period romance novels, which I do as an occasional break from more contemporary writing, you'll enjoy Kate Hannigan's Girl.

Kate Hannigan's Girl

This book is so very "Cookson". I read at breakneck speed and and feared coming to the end. Catherine Cookson continues to force us to care for her characters and smell the grass under their feet.

Enjoyable period piece

In the early twentieth century in the English countryside, Annie Hannigan knows regardless of what happens in her life, she will never forget her impoverish early childhood. Her mother Kate, now married and respectable, was not so when Annie was illegitimately born in the worst of the slums. Life is materially better due mostly because of Kate's caring spouse. When Terence Macbane begins to court Annie, she feels that life cannot get better. However, in her new Eden lies a snake, her bitterest rival Cathleen Davidson, who will do anything to keep the loving duo apart and seems to be succeeding. Only Annie can save her budding relationship if she is willing to fight for it. Incredible as it seems, KATE HANNIGAN'S GIRL is the hundredth novel by the late great Catherine Cookson. The story line provides insight into a bygone era, but not as deep or thorourghly as some of the wonderful Ms. Cookson's previous books. Though entertaining to the author's fans and those readers who relish a period piece, anyone new to this great writer should visit the library where bookshelves are dedicated to her fabulous creations for a better taste of Ms. Cookson's early twentieth century novels.