The Rag Nymph by Catherine Cookson

The Rag Nymph by Catherine Cookson

Between 1950 and her death in 1998, Catherine Cookson wrote almost 100 books, becoming one of the most successful writers in the world.

The Rag Nymph, a historical novel, published in 1991, tells the tale of Millie, an orphan taken in my Raggy Aggie, a woman who supports herself in Victorian England by gathering unwanted clothes and reselling them.

Aggie isn't at all sure she wants this strange and exceptionally beautiful child who speaks as if she belongs more in the upper class drawing rooms, rather than in the desperate section of town. Yet what could she do, when an unknown woman suddenly thrusts the child on her as she runs from the police.

The book takes us to the time of the industrial revolution when the population exploded, prostitution is rampant, and criminals lurk waiting to snatch a beautiful child who could bring them big money as a call girl. Much of the book explores the difficulties Aggie and her young ward Ben have keeping Millie safe from the dregs of society.

The time of Victorian England is often romanticized and deemed as a moral time, yet it was actually a very immoral time. Cookson isn't afraid to explore the gritty realities of poverty, kidnapping, prostitution and rape. Children frequently disappeared from their homes and sold, and police had little power to do much about it, especially when so many were from the lower class. Yet in spite of the seediness, Cookson tells a story of love between a child who grows into womanhood, an elderly lady whose life changes forever because of her generosity, and a misshapen young man who discovers he has greatness in him. We get to visit an upper class drawing room where a horrendous crime is about to be committed, a brothel where good and evil meet, the streets of an English town, and the ramshackle but loving home of Aggie. We learn something too, not all the bad guys are the criminals in the streets, and not all heroes are perfect.

This is the first Cookson book I've read and I'll be reading more of her.


Other Books by Catherine Cookson