Product Description

Volume 1 follows Mary Ann, a young girl living in poverty in a dockland tenement on Tyneside, from the ages of eight to thirteen. She is determined to bring about a better way of life for her family and, to the amazement of the gentle parish priest, Father Owen, and the rage and consternation of her arch-enemy, Sarah Flanagan, Mary Ann's tenacity eventually pays off.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #158595 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 939 pages

From the Back Cover
THE MARY ANN NOVELS

VOLUME ONE

The eight novels featuring the popular, irrepressible Mary Ann Shaughnessy are for the first time collected into two volumes.

Volume 1 follows Mary Ann, a young girl living in poverty in a dockland tenement on Tyneside, from the ages of eight to thirteen. She is determined to bring about a better way of life for her family and, to the amazement of the gentle parish priest, Father Owen, and the rage and consternation of her arch-enemy, Sarah Flanagan, Mary Ann's tenacity eventually pays off.

Also available:

The MARY ANN novels volume 2:

LIFE AND MARY ANN

MARRIAGE AND MARY ANN

MARY ANN'S ANGELS

MARY ANN AND BILL

About the Author
Catherine Cookson
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 many best-selling novels established her as one of the most popular of contemporary women novelists. 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. For many years she lived near Newcastle upon Tyne. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998.

Customer Reviews

A "cracking-good" read featuring a delightful heroine.
The Mary Ann Omnibus Vol I introduces you to Mary Ann Shaughnessy , her family,her friends, and her enemies. Mary Ann's enemies are as universal as characters as she is(i.e. the bossy neighbor, the schoolyard bully, the disapproving Granny-all well drawn.)Cookson tells Mary Ann's story from age six to thirteen.Cookson's descriptions make it easy to picture Mary Ann, he beloved Da, her beautiful Mam, her somewhat colorless brother,
and the mysterious Mr. Lord.Cookson's characters are engaging and provide an easy but satisfying read.After finishing Vol of Mary Ann's story, I was eager to order Vol II to read the rest of her story.As a longtime Cookson reader, I was delighted to find these two volumes.They are not Cookson's later work but certainly some of her best.

I did not enjoy the mary annes at all.
Maybe she spoilt us with her other works but i did not enjoy these one bit. Not even up to her usual standard.

Magical.
I read my very first Catherine Cookson when I was around 7 or 8 years old. Our neighbour, an elderly lady called Mrs. Court, loaned me her copy of "A Grand Man", which is the very first book in the Mary Ann series. This book hooked me, and I went on to read all of the Mary Ann books.

Catherine Cookson has a way of opening up your mind with her words on the page and painting a picture of what you are reading. You can see it happening inside your head, and you feel the warmth, the love, the devotion of this small child, Mary Ann.

I eventually bought my own copy of A Grand Man, and still have that copy today, along with all the others in the series. This life long devotion (and I'm well past my sell by date now) to these books has never faded with me. I am still re-reading the books now.

They have been loaned out over and over again, and I've even sat and read them to children - and have just this evening read a chapter to a dear male friend who's approaching his forties, who loved it.

There is a magic and innocence about the Mary Ann series that no one else could possibly convey. I absolutely thoroughly recommend this series of books.