Catherine Cookson is a very successful writer with 61 novels, all in print, to her name. But she was brought up in very poor circumstances on Tyneside by her mother, leaving school at the age of 13.
In conversation with Roy Plomley, she talks about her days 'in service', about how she came to run a workhouse laundry, how eventually she became a full-time novelist, and she chooses the eight records she would take to the mythical island.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Thora by Adams/Wetherey
Book: Her own autobiography
Luxury: Piano