Memories of a Northern Childhood.
Josephine Cox was born in Blackburn during its decline as the cotton-weaving capital of the world. Life was hard but characterful, the joys and tragedies of her youth later inspiring her multi-million selling novels.
One of ten children, Josephine knew poverty, hunger and the charity of the Ragged School. Sleeping up to six in a bed - 'three top, three bottom' - her family lived among the tightly packed, working-class terraces of Blackburn. But Josephine never felt victimised or shamed.
Transforming their closed-in community into one that inspired 'another kind of love, a deep sense of belonging,' were the characters Josephine writes about in her novels: old Miss Tilly and Fancy Carruthers in bed together in their frilly green caps; thoroughly bad Maisie Thorogood, the rag-and-bone lady; and bargee Sal Tanner, whose real-life counterpart lived in a canal bank shed.
But, alas, reality was not only this. Hand in hand with poverty came deprivation and domestic difficulties. At the end of her tether, Jo's mother eventually left with Josephine and her sisters. 'Belonging to a street, to a place, to a family, is the most important thing.' This is the loss out of which Josephine's novels were born.
'Child Of The North', written with her cooperation, and illustrated with period and specially commissioned colour photographs, unveils the world of Josephine Cox - her own story of a colourful childhood, told for the first time.
