Once again, in The Black Velvet Gown,

Catherine Cookson brings her exceptional skill

as storyteller to the rugged countryside of North-

umberland in the northern hills of England.

With a fine sense of the land and a superb eye for

detail, she tells us the story of two remarkable

women: a mother and daughter often at odds

with each other but more so with their world

and its circumstances; the mother facing the

loneliness of premature widowhood, and the

daughter, the need to challenge and fight the

prejudice of her time.

It is 1820 and the widowed Mafia Millican

takes work for herself and her children at the

manor house of an eccentric master, who,

against the custom of the day, teaches the chil-

dren to read and think. It is Biddy, the oldest

daughter, who shows a natural gift for learning

and thus the ability to live a life she can never

achieve. At fourteen she is sent away to the

county seat to work in the laundry of the great

house. Against all warnings she continues to

read, to learn and to think for herself, but this

cannot be, for in nineteenth-century England,

knowledge can bring nothing but pain and trou-

ble to the life of a serving girl--and for Biddy, a

terrible tragedy. But her intelligence, courage

and natural grace sustain her as she overcomes

the prejudice of her day.