Editing Catherine Cookson (section)

==Early life==
Cookson, registered as '''Catherine Ann Davies''', was born on 20 June 1906<ref>{{Cite news|date=12 June 1998|title=Catherine Cookson|page=27|work=[[The Times]]|issue=66266}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cookson, Dame Catherine (Ann), (20 June 1906–11 June 1998), author, since 1950|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-177701|access-date=2020-06-11|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|year=2007|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u177701|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1 }}</ref> at 5 Leam Lane<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Cookson [née Davies], Dame Catherine Ann (1906–1998), writer|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-70039|access-date=2020-06-11|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/70039}}</ref> in [[Tyne Dock]], [[South Shields]], [[County Durham]], England. She was known as "Katie" as a child.<ref name=Cookson>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-44579701|title=Show remembers Catherine Cookson two decades after death|date=23 June 2018|work=BBC.co.uk|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> She moved to [[Jarrow|East Jarrow]], which would become the setting for one of her best-known novels, ''The Fifteen Streets''. The illegitimate child of an [[alcoholism|alcoholic]] named Kate Fawcett, she grew up thinking her unmarried mother was her sister, as she was brought up by her grandparents, Rose and John McMullen.<ref name="visitsouthtyneside.co.uk">{{cite web|url=http://www.visitsouthtyneside.co.uk/article/12662/catherine-cookson|title=Catherine Cookson|website=www.visitsouthtyneside.co.uk|access-date=15 January 2018|archive-date=16 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116101127/http://www.visitsouthtyneside.co.uk/article/12662/catherine-cookson|url-status=dead}}</ref> Biographer Kathleen Jones tracked down her father, whose name was Alexander Davies, a [[Bigamy|bigamist]] and gambler from [[Lanarkshire]], Scotland.<ref name="shields gazette">{{cite news|url=https://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/16-facts-about-dame-catherine-cookson-on-her-110th-birthday-1-7984312|title=16 facts about Dame Catherine Cookson on her 110th birthday|date=27 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629022447/https://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/16-facts-about-dame-catherine-cookson-on-her-110th-birthday-1-7984312|archive-date=29 June 2018|work=Shields Gazette|url-status=dead}}</ref>

She left school at 14 and, after a period of domestic service,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/south-shields-author-catherine-cookson-4303749|title=Remember When: The Death of South Shields author Catherine Cookson|first=David|last=Morton|date=12 June 2013|access-date=15 January 2018}}</ref> took a [[laundry]] job at Harton [[Workhouse]]<ref name="visitsouthtyneside.co.uk"/> in [[South Shields]]. In 1929, she moved south to run the laundry at [[Hastings]] Workhouse, saving every penny to buy a large Victorian house, and then taking in lodgers to supplement her income.<ref name="shields gazette"/>

In June 1940, at the age of 34, she married Tom Cookson, a teacher at [[Hastings Grammar School]]. After experiencing four [[miscarriage]]s<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/12/books/catherine-cookson-91-prolific-british-author.html|title=Catherine Cookson, 91, Prolific British Author|first=Robert McG Jr.|last=Thomas|date=12 June 1998|access-date=15 January 2018|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> late in pregnancy, it was discovered she was suffering from a rare [[Blood vessel|vascular]] disease,<ref name=Cookson/> [[telangiectasia]], which caused bleeding from the nose, fingers, and stomach and resulted in [[anemia|anaemia]]. A [[mental breakdown]] followed the miscarriages, from which it took her a decade to recover.<ref name="shields gazette"/>