FROM RAGS TO RICHES reads like a plot from one of her novels…

Josephine Cox celebrated, in the autumn of last year, the publication of her 25th novel, Rainbow Days, described by one critic as 'as satisfying as a Lancashire hotpot.'
It's guaranteed to make No.1 in the bestseller lists, as have her other books which have been translated into French, Dutch, Polish and Russian - even though her stories are usually set in the North of England.
Like Catherine Cookson - and Josephine's been heralded as her natural successor - her own life is even more extraordinary than the tales she writes. And, like her characters, she's triumphed over unbelievable hardship and unhappiness.
Her story began on the back streets of Blackburn. Josephine, now in her fifties, was the fourth of 10 children, seven boys and three girls. Her mother, Mary Jane, worked in the cotton mills, and her father Bernard worked for the local corporation, sweeping the streets and looking after Blackburn Rovers football ground.
'We were poor, but there was a lot of love around,' recalls Josephine. 'Derwent Street, where we lived, was a real community. You could go out and leave the door unlocked, then come back and find six people sitting in your kitchen drinking tea. The women all looked after each other's children. Nobody had much, but we all shared what we had.'
There may have been a lot of love, but life could be bleak too - especially on a Friday night, when their father collected his wages and went to the local pub. 'My mum used to send me down to fetch him before he spent all the money,' says Josephine. 'Sometimes he came home a pint or two over the top and would get a bit rough with my mum. If he hit her, I used to run down to the constabulary and fetch a policeman.'
To escape from the harsh reality of her life, Josephine would make up stories. 'I used to get all the local kids together on a Friday afternoon and charge them each a penny to hear a story,' she says. 'It helped pay the gas bill or buy a loaf of bread. Then, when I was 11, I won a prize in a short story competition. I remember my teacher Miss Jackson telling the school: "One day the whole world will read Josephine's stories." When she said that I knew that was what I wanted to do.'
But less than four years later she left school with no qualifications and went to work in the local vinegar factory, sticking labels on bottles. It was at this time that the family split up and her mother took five of the children to live with her sister in Bedfordshire.
'Looking back on it, it was a brave step for her to take,' says Josephine. 'I remember the day we left. When my dad was at work she gathered us all together and told us we were leaving. She wanted to take us all, but some of the boys wouldn't go. It was so traumatic, leaving them and my dad behind.'
In Bedfordshire, Josephine found a new job working in a plastics factory. There, at the age of 15, she met Ken Cox, the man who was to become the love of her life.
'They say there's no such thing as love at first sight, but I knew Ken was the man for me as soon as I laid eyes on him,' remembers Josephine.
'Unfortunately, he didn't feel the same. He was 19 and thought I was too young for him. But I managed to win him over in the end!' They married on Easter Saturday 1958 and went on to have two sons - Spencer and Wayne.
They were happy years for the family. When the boys started school, Josephine went back to evening classes to catch up on some of the O and A-levels she'd missed out on. She then decided to go on to further education and was offered a place at Cambridge University, but turned it down because at the time, students weren't allowed to live out and she couldn't bear to leave her family. She went on to train as a teacher.
Then, in the Seventies, the family's fortunes changed in a dramatic and terrible way. The recession hit and Ken's haulage business collapsed. They were forced to sell their home to make ends meet.
'We had nothing again,' says Josephine. 'We had to beg the council to give us a house and in the end they gave us a derelict one that no one else wanted. It was in a terrible state. There was graffiti all over the walls, the roof had caved in and anything of value had been ripped out. The neighbours were using the garden as a tip - we must have taken out about six skiploads of rubbish when we first moved in.'
Determined not to let their misfortune beat her, Josephine rolled up her sleeves and got to work. 'It took a long time to get the place right, but in the end we grew to love it,' she says. 'We lived there for 17 years.'
What with bringing up two children, working full-time as a teacher and renovating the house from hell, there wasn't a lot of time to write. It wasn't until Josephine was confined to bed after a big operation in 1984 that she was finally able to pursue her dream.
'I was bored, until a teaching colleague said: "Why don't you write that book you're always on about?" So she took up her notebook and began to pen Her Father's Sins, a story inspired by her own troubled family life back in Blackburn. 'The words just flowed off the pages,' she says. 'I'd be writing when the nurse came to switch off the light, then I'd switch it back on again and carry on writing.'
The book took just six weeks to complete. Josephine sent it to a publisher, where it stayed for nine months. By the time it was accepted, she'd penned three more.
'It was a dream come true,' says Josephine. 'I put that first hardback on my mantle piece and stared at it for ages. I kept walking into bookshops to look at it on the shelves.'
Success had brought her fame and financial security. After 41 years, she's idyllically happy with Ken, their two sons and two grandchildren Chloe and Amelia. They have a rambling house in the Oxfordshire countryside, a villa in Cyprus, and enough time and money to indulge their love of travel.
But, at heart, she's still the little girl in Blackburn, telling stories to feed her family. 'You can't forget your roots,' she says. 'Coming from my background, I never take material things for granted. I'm not hungry anymore, I'm not cold or dressed in clothes that don't fit or shoes that are too big. But there is always a part of you that is afraid of it coming back.'
A CHILD OF THE NORTH is out now.