Catherine Cookson novels are set in and around the northeast of England, past and present. This, her autobiography, makes plain how it is she knows her background and her characters so well. The Kate of the title is not Catherine Cookson, but her mother.

OUR KATE is about living with hardship and poverty. The story is told from the viewpoint of a highly sensitive child, later the mature woman, whose zest for life and unquenchable sense of humor made Catherine Cookson a warm, engaging writer.