Catherine Cookson was born in Tyne Dock, the illegitimate daughter of a poverty-stricken woman, Kate, whom she believed to be her older sister. She began work in service but eventually moved south to Hastings, where she met and married Tom Cookson, a local grammar-school master.

Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award for the best regional novel of 1968 her readership quickly spread throughout the world, and her she became the United Kingdom's most widely read novelist, with sales topping 100 million, while retaining a relatively low profile in the world of celebrity writers.

After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She was appointed an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in 1997. Catherine Cookson died at the age of 91 at her home in Newcastle, although her novels, many written from her sickbed, continued to be published posthumously until 2002.