BILL BAILEY

By Catherine Cookson

Synopsis

From the moment Bill Bailey arrived to take up residence at Fiona Nelson’s home in the Tyneside town of Fellburn, he made his presence felt in no uncertain terms. He might be outwardly ordinary enough, but he appeared to possess some extraordinary qualities, which proved to have a great and lasting effect on the future lives of Fiona and her young family.

Sample Player

Narrator	Peggy Shields
Length	9hrs
Catalogue No.	2477
Publisher	Heinemann

Other audiobooks by Catherine Cookson

BILL BAILEY'S DAUGHTER

Sequel to 'Bill Bailey's Lot' (2586). Bill and Fiona Bailey are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first child.

BILL BAILEY'S LOT

Sequel to 'Bill Bailey' (2477). For Bill Bailey, now a fully-fledged Tyneside building contractor, life is good. But it is vital that Bill land the contract of a major development scheme. Competition is fierce, and when his men come under attack, Bill is sure that someone is out to spoil their chances for the job.

THE BLACK CANDLE

Bridget inherited her father's business at the age of nineteen, and by the time she was twenty-three in 1880, she was running them as confidently as any man. So a pattern began to form that would shape the lives of generations to come, yet the path destiny required her to follow was not an easy one.

THE BLACK VELVET GOWN

Riah Millican came to regret that her husband had learned to read and write, and then shared his knowledge with her and their children. For this was Durham in the 1830’s, when employers regarded the spread of education with suspicion. But now Seth was dead and she needed to find a home and a living. Her new job as a housekeeper in Moor House with a scholarly recluse, started a chain reaction that should have opened many doors to her future but instead created many problems.

THE BONDAGE OF LOVE

Continuing the fortunes of the Bailey family. Fiona relies more than ever on her husband, Bill, for support - a rock of a man with a rough tongue but a heart of gold. Sequel to 'Bill Bailey's Daughter' (2876)

THE BONNY DAWN

Brid Stevens usually met Joe Lloyd at a weekly dance, but today she was excitedly up at dawn to meet Joe on Stockwell Hill, where they could watch the sun rise over the sea. Who could predict that such a perfect start would end with tragedy?

THE BRANDED MAN

Set at the turn of the century in Northumberland and London, this is the gripping story of fourteen-year-old Marie Anne Lawson, youngest daughter of a prosperous Northumbrian family - and of the mysterious 'branded' man, who was to influence both their lives to an extent that neither of them could have imagined.

THE CINDER PATH

The cinder path which led from the Northumberland farmhouse would always symbolise defeat for Charlie MacFell. People saw him as a born loser who always got the dirty end of the stick. At the root of the matter were boyhood humiliations by his brutal father - but was that all there was to Charlie MacFell? Then an opportunity emerges for Charlie to display his inner strengths and integrity, and to give the lie to those who had thought him to be of no account...

THE DESERT CROP

In 1880's Felburn money is tight, so when farmer Hector Stewart marries wealthy Maria Connelly, his son, Daniel, guesses the real reason for the union. But when Maria loses her wealth the shockwave is felt throughout the Stewart family.

THE DEVIL AND MARY ANN

Book 3 of 'Mary Ann' series. Sequel to 'The Lord and Mary Ann' (1888). Mary Ann is being sent to a Convent school for the education which will help her escape from poverty.

A DINNER OF HERBS

Roddy Greenbank was brought by his father to the remote Northumberland community of Langley in the autumn of 1807. However, when his father meets a violent death Roddy is adopted and raised by old Kate Makepeace. Roddy befriends Hal Roystan and Mary Ellen Lee, and these three find their lives lastingly intertwined by the inexorable demands of a strange and somewhat cruel destiny.

THE DWELLING PLACE

When fifteen-year-old Cissie Brodie loses her parents to cholera, she is forced out of the family cottage and left to raise her nine siblings alone. Although desperately poor, Cissie determines to build a new home for the Brodies. It is only a rough stone shelter, but to Cissie and her family it is enough to keep them from the workhouse. But can love, when it arrives, teach Cissie not to fear the world beyond the dwelling place?

FEATHERS IN THE FIRE

Every once in a while, circumstance traps a group of people in a pattern of tragedy and violence from which they struggle vainly to fight free. Thus it was with the Master of Cock Shield Farm, Angus McBain, a man too easily tempted to sin, and those in and around his household.

THE GAMBLING MAN

Rory Connor was a gambling man and he had a gambler's luck. At seven years old he was earning money from odd jobs and by the time he was twenty-three, his ambition was in full flow and he was always looking to bigger and better games to play. For an ordinary working lad, he was doing well - until one day, his luck changed and suddenly, things did not go as smoothly as he was used to...

THE GARMENT

Grace Rouse, a normal and beautiful young woman, is forced to recognise that her marriage is a sham after two years as the wife of a country parson. She turns from the husband she has tried in vain to love to the comfort and release offered by another man.

THE GIRL

Her name was Hannah Boyle, to the people of the village she would always be "The Girl". As the waif grew to beautiful womanhood, she became an object of desire to the local young men, including her half-brother.But it was the devil-may-care horse-dealer Ned Ridley, who taught her the meaning of love and passion.

THE GLASS VIRGIN

Annabella LaGrange was the only child of a wealthy family, owners of a glassworks in the North-East of England. When she is seventeen, Annabella learns something so shocking about her past that she flees her childhood home and is forced to embark upon a new existence with an invented past. Suddenly she must unlearn everything she has been taught about class and love.

THE GOLDEN STRAW

It began with a straw hat, presented to Emily by her friend and employer, Mable Arkwright, milliner and modiste, who eventually left her the business. It was a prelude to a series of events which would influence the destiny of her children and grandchildren through the first world war.

GOODBYE HAMILTON

Sequel to 'Hamilton' (1481). Freed at last from a disastrous marriage, Maisie had become a bestselling author with her first book - about Hamilton, the remarkable horse who existed only in her imagination, and was her guide, philosopher and friend.

A GRAND MAN

Book 1 of the 'Mary Ann' series. “Me da’s a grand man!” Mary Ann Shaughnessy has spoken; question her who dare. For although Mary Ann may look quite an ordinary small girl from a dockland tenement, she is in fact a one-man army, armoured with faith and possessed of formidable qualities.

HAMILTON

Maisie doesn't understand why her mother can't love her, but she knows that her life is deeply unhappy. When her stepfather George, leaves, Maisie has no protector, until she begins to escape into her own imagination. She first meets Hamilton as a lonely seven year old, but he has to remain a secret, for what would people think if she reveals her only friend is an imaginary horse?

HANNAH MASSEY

Proud, canny and ambitious, Hannah Massey is a born ruler. Her kingdom may be only a working-class household in County Durham, but within its walls her iron will governs a predominantly male family and her word is unchallengeable law. Now, in late middle age, her ambition is yet to be satisfied. She wants to see her brood living in the house where she was in service as a young girl.

THE HARROGATE SECRET

Young Freddie Musgrove was never more agile than when navigating his sculler across the waters of the Tyne. The shillings he picked up running messages and smuggled goods, helped to feed his family amidst the endless battle for survival in 1843. But after he witnesses a scene of unremitting horror at The Towers, his silence is bought, and years later, when the horror reoccurs, Freddie must fight to remain uninvolved.

A HOUSE DIVIDED

When Matthew is invalided out of the army at the end of World War Two, his family is sympathetic but they have their problems. The only person he can relate to is his nurse, Liz.

JUST A SAYING

Best known as a novelist, Catherine Cookson also wrote poetry throughout her life. This anthology offers her unique perspective on life.

JUSTICE IS A WOMAN

When Joe Remington brought his new bride to Fell Rise, he sensed she might not settle easily into his home in the Tyneside town of Fellburn. For this was 1926, the year of the General Strike, the effects of which would nowhere be felt more acutely than in the North-East. Then when Elaine became pregnant, she saw it as a disaster, but in the long run, would it widen the rift between husband and wife, or would it help to bring about a reconciliation?

KATE HANNIGAN'S GIRL

Sequel to 'Kate Hannigan' (905). Written fifty years after the first book, this is set in the 1920's and finds Kate happily married to Dr Rodney Prince, but spiteful rumours about her past threaten her happiness.

KATIE MULHOLLAND

As the daughter of a mining family, Katie Mulholland is forced to find work as a scullery maid in the house of the Rosiers. But the beautiful young girl soon captures the eye of her employer’s evil son, who rapes her and leaves her pregnant. But Katie’s fate changes course when one man offers her the opportunity to make her own fortune, and to discover real love . . .

THE LADY ON MY LEFT

When Alison's guardian, an experienced antique dealer, asked her to value the contents of Beacon Ride, his long concealed secret is exposed.

LIFE AND MARY ANN

Book 5 of 'Mary Ann' series: Sequel to 'Love and Mary Ann' (6043). Seventeen year old Mary Ann has to grow up quickly as her first love, Corny Boyle, leaves for America.

THE LONG CORRIDOR

Dr Paul Higgins and his wife Bett have allowed a bitter gulf to grow between them. Loyally supporting them both is cousin Jenny but she must also find some happiness for herself.

THE LORD AND MARY ANN

Book 2 of the Mary Ann series. Sequel to 'A Grand Man' (6000). Mary Ann hopes for great results from her father in his new job.

LOVE AND MARY ANN

Book 4 of 'Mary Ann' series: Sequel to 'The Devil and Mary Ann' (6001). As Mary Ann began to learn about the feelings of adults, so could she see that the more they loved someone, the more they could hurt and be hurt. And it wasn’t just grown-ups who felt this way either...

MAGGIE ROWAN

When she asked Christopher Taggart to marry her, Maggie's two main desires in life were a child she could love and one of those big houses on Brampton Hill. She meant to have them all, despite the scorn of some folk, who thought they knew what she deserved better than she did herself!

THE MALLEN GIRL

Even as a child Barbara was beautiful, but as her beauty grew, so did the affliction which shadowed it - she was becoming more and more deaf. Yet living in her silent world, she was protected from the knowledge which might otherwise have destroyed her - the secret of her own origins. Book 2 of the trilogy.

THE MALLEN LITTER

Each generation of the Mallen family has been cursed with a dramatic white streak in their jet-black hair. When Barbara's triplets - the Mallen litter - were born, she hoped that it would herald a new beginning. But it seems that one of her sons bears the Mallen streak - and that the Mallen curse will never die out... Book 3 of the trilogy.

THE MALLEN STREAK

Mallen of High Banks Hall had many sons, most of them out of wedlock. But to all of them, he passed on his mark – a distinctive flash of white hair running to the left temple known as the Mallen Streak. In 1851, Thomas Mallen, heir of High Banks Hall, found himself a ruined man and was forced amid scandal and disgrace to sell the hall. Then the Radlet brothers of Wilbur Farm arrived, one of whom bore the unmistakable Mallen Streak... Book 1 of the trilogy.

THE MALTESE ANGEL

Young farmer, Ward Gibson knew what was expected of him by the village folk, and especially by the Mason family, whose daughter Daisy he had known all his life. But then, in a single week, his whole world had been turned upside down by a dancer, Stephanie McQueen, who seemed to float across the stage of the Empire Music Hall where she was appearing as The Maltese Angel.

MARRIAGE AND MARY ANN

Book 6 in 'Mary Ann' series: Sequel to 'Life and Mary Ann' (6262). Corny is back from America and Mary Ann's dreams come true as they plan to get married.

MARY ANN AND BILL

Final Book in Mary Ann series: Sequel to 'Mary Ann's Angels' (6264). As her children grow a new love enters Mary Ann's life.

MARY ANN'S ANGELS

Book 7 in Mary Ann series: Sequel to 'Marriage and Mary Ann' (6263). Life continues for Mary Ann and Corny. They are now the proud parents of twins, Rose Mary and David, who are inseparable and the apple of their mother’s eye. But are they really angels?

THE MOTH

Robert Bradley, a young man of independent mind and spirit, gave up his job in the Jarrow shipyards to work at his uncle's old-established carpenter's shop in a small village. Life with domineering Uncle John and his family did not always prove easy, however, and on Sunday Robert was glad to set off alone exploring the Durham countryside. At a friendly wayside inn he heard talk about Foreshaw Park, the sadly run-down estate of the once wealthy Thorman family, and walking home in the moonlight he had his first strange encounter with Millie, the ethereal girl-child of that house whose odd ways and nocturnal wanderings had led to her being known locally as 'Thorman's Moth'. The time came when a sudden and dramatic turn in Robert's affairs brought him a much closer involvement with the Thormans of Foreshaw, and especially with the elder daughter Agnes who shouldered so many of the burdens of this troubled household and who alone of all her family loved and protected the frail unworldly Millie. But this was 1913, and anything beyond the most formal relationship between servant and mistress had to face the barriers and injustices of a rigid social hierarchy that was soon to perish in the flames of war.

MY BELOVED SON

When Ellen Jebeau’s husband dies in 1926, he leaves behind a legacy of debt and empty dreams. However, Ellen is determined that her son Joseph should have everything in life that she never did, and will stop at nothing to give it to him. But years later, can Joseph escape the clutches of his mother’s ruthless ambition, and emerge from the shadows of his heritage as the man he truly wants to be?

THE NICE BLOKE

Harry Blenheim had always been known as the nice bloke, an inoffensive man whose existence was as dull as ditchwater. But when he gives into the demands of the vivacious Betty Ray, the scandal that follows not only splits his family but ruins his career.

THE OBSESSION

Since the death of her mother, young Beatrice Steel has been ruling the family home with an iron fist, and when her wealthy father dies she realizes that she will stop at nothing to retain control of Pine Hurst.

OUR KATE

Catherine Cookson describes her own early years and the hard life led by her mother, Kate, whom she originally believed was her older sister.

THE PARSON'S DAUGHTER

Nancy Ann Hazel, young and high-spirited was the daughter of a country parson. He was a good man, but his Sunday sermon could seem long indeed when beyond the church doors the autumn sunshine beckoned her into the fields. Two elder brothers had taught her independence and courage - both of which she was going to need ...

PURE AS THE LILY

Mary Walton is the apple of her father's eye; his only comfort during the dark years of the Depression when he is faced with both unemployment and a nagging, ambitious wife. His only hope is that Mary will one day find a way to escape the grinding poverty of the Tyneside slums. But when a secret is revealed these dreams are shattered and the lives of the Walton family change forever. . .

THE RAG NYMPH

The heart-warming story of a young girl abandoned by her mother, who finds a home and a new life in Victorian England.

RILEY

When Riley left school after a harsh childhood who could have predicted his rise to fame and fortune?

ROSIE OF THE RIVER

Sally Carpenter is filled with trepidation when her husband suggests a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads. At first they suffer mishaps but gradually they make friends with the boating fraternity and encounter a remarkable young girl, Rosie.

A RUTHLESS NEED

The year was 1937. Geoff Fulton would always carry with him the memory of the night when his timely intervention rescued 14 year-old Lizzie Gillespie from the streets. Given the chance of a new life, Lizzie blossomed into a woman with ideals and expectations, and began to realize that she no longer needed the support of the man she had once regarded as her saviour.

THE SILENT LADY

When a shabby woman arrived at a respectable solicitor's office she was nearly thrown out. As Alexander Armstrong heard her name he had to see her, for Irene Baindor had disappeared 26 years ago. Where had she been and why reappear now?

THE SIMPLE SOUL AND OTHER STORIES

A collection of short stories, set in the North East, London and on the South Coast. The events take place anywhere from the 1920's to the present day, but all deal with changes in people's lives.

SLINKY JANE

From the moment of Leo's arrival strange things begin to happen in Battenbun. An eel that's never been known to visit before appears in a pond outside the village. The men slope off to see this Slinky Jane - or so they say - while the women decide how best to deal with the other slippery customers …

THE SOLACE OF SIN

Set in 1970s, the story of a strong and independent woman whose life is transformed by new surroundings and new acquaintances.

THE THURSDAY FRIEND

On the face of it there was no reason why Hannah and Humphrey were not happy and content in their marriage, but things were not as they appeared on the surface.

TILLY TROTTER

Coming up sixteen, Tilly Trotter is different from the other girls in her village. Tall for her age and coltish, she is not afraid of taking on "man's work" to help out the grandparents who raised her in a cottage at the edge of the Sop with Estate, only a few miles from the bustling Tyneside towns of County Durham. Testing times lay ahead for Tilly, often hard to endure and even bringing her the undeserved taint of being suspected of witchcraft. Tilly, with her unusual beauty, envied by the local women and lusted after by the men, only loves one man, farmer Simon Bentwood. She is heartbroken to discover he is betrothed to another. A spurned suitor takes a terrible revenge, and a betrayal forces her into the cruel drudgery of the local mine and puts her life in danger. But Tilly refuses to let her spirit be broken, determined that all this will only serve to make her stronger, and she grows to become a young woman of innate courage and fortitude. Set at the beginning of the Victorian era, this is a compelling story that follows the shaping of a young woman's life and destiny.

TILLY TROTTER WED

Tilly Trotter has devotedly served Mark Sopwith at Highfield Manor and is his wife in all but name. But when Mark dies Tilly is left pregnant with his illegitimate child. A new love seems to offer an escape and so she follows her heart to America, sure that this will be the beginning of a better life. But new perils await Tilly across the ocean.... Vol.2 of the series.

TILLY TROTTER WIDOWED

Third book in the popular trilogy. Sequel to 'Tilly Trotter Wed' (11136).The young widow returns from the United States to take charge of Highfield Manor, where once she worked as a nursemaid. She finds that life still has plenty in store for her.

THE TINKER'S GIRL

Jinnie Howlett, a fifteen-year-old inmate of a northern workhouse, is offered a position as a maidservant on an isolated farm, but soon realises she has merely exchanged one type of drudgery for another.

THE UNBAITED TRAP

Although married with a family, solicitor John Emmerson was a lonely isolated man. Then he met Cissie, a young widow, and for the first time his loneliness eased a little.

THE UPSTART

Samuel Fairbrother is regarded by some as an 'upstart' when his sudden rise to power leads to conflict.

THE WHIP

Emma Molinero is the orphan daughter of an itinerant carnival performer and skilled at performing with the whips. She is a figure of mystery and fascination to the villagers among whom she lives.

THE WINGLESS BIRD

Christmas 1913 and Agnes Conway, 22 and daughter of a tobacconist, has to keep from her father the secret of her relationship with Charles Farrier, son of a local landowner, who outrages his wealthy family by proposing marriage. His brother, Reginald, also makes no secret of his admiration for Agnes.

THE YEAR OF THE VIRGINS

It had never been the best of marriages, yet in 1960, Winifred and Daniel Coulson still presented an acceptable family facade to the outside world. But there was something potentially explosive just below the surface of life at Wearcill House. It came in an unforeseeable form, plunging the Coulsons into an excoriating series of crises out of which would emerge both good and evil.