Rosie Of The River - Couverture souple

Although entirely fictional, Rosie of the River was inspired by Catherine Cookson’s own experience of holidaying on the Norfolk Broads with her husband Tom. It is yet another example of the prodigious talent of Britain’s best-loved author.

When Fred Carpenter suggests to his wife, Sally, that they should take a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads, she is filled with trepidation. Nevertheless she summons her courage and they and their bull-terrier Bill set off, with Fred at the helm of Dogfish Three.

Sally’s misgivings are soon justified, as a series of disasters, human, nautical and canine, threaten to ruin their holiday. Then everything changes as they make friends with the boating fraternity and encounter the remarkable 15-year-old Rosie, whose family history stirs their curiosity and sympathy. As a result, Fred and Sally decide to support Rosie’s efforts to better herself — and are rewarded when she finds love and happiness.

Sally Carpenter can't swim and doesn't like boats, so when her husband Fred announces that he has booked them a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads she's far from enthusiastic.

Together with their beloved bull-terrier Bill they set off, only to lurch from one mishap to another. Drowning their sorrows in a local pub one evening they meet Rosie, whose family is also boating on the Broads. The Carpenters befriend fifteen-year-old Rosie and when she has a fight with her violent mother it is to Fred and Sally that she runs.

After the holiday, Rosie goes to live with her grandmother, but through the years that follow she relies on Fred and Sally whenever she is in trouble. They help her sort out the many and varied difficulties facing her in her new life, and come to look upon her as the daughter they never had.