Born to an impoverished young Englishwoman in 1906, illegitimate and unwanted, Catherine Cookson lived a life marked by cruelty and neglect. At 22, reeling from a broken love affair, she left home in search of a new life. After five years in a workhouse laundry, she was finally able to buy a house of her own. But her struggle had barely begun. Following the loss of four babies, a nervous breakdown, and confinement in a psychiatric hospital, she was brought to the brink of suicide and forced to recognize the heart of darkness as her own. This remarkable book, now newly revised, draws on previously unreleased material as well as the subject's own personal account.  The Girl from Leam Lane will be welcomed by the millions who know Catherine Cookson through her novels.