DAME Thora Hird telephoned Burnley author John Cowell to let him know how much she had enjoyed reading his first book, The Broken Biscuit. PAULINE HAWKINS finds out more about the sequel

JOHN Cowell will never forget the run-up to his sixth birthday. His father Jack, a rag and bone man, came home drunk and demanded to know from his trembling children who they loved best -- mummy or daddy.

Faced with an awful dilemma four of the anxious youngsters, including John's twin sister Mary, bravely answered they loved their mummy.

But John, taking pity on his father, told him he loved his daddy -- and avoided being shut in the cellar.

The children's frantic mother tried to rescue them but, when her husband refused to let them out, she whacked him round the head with a poker.

"I remember him lying in a pool of blood on the floor," said John, now 63.

His mother was arrested and accused of causing grievous bodily harm but as she stood in the dock Jack burst in, having discharged himself from hospital. Now sober and remorseful, he told the court the incident had been his fault.

Years later, John researched the case and discovered that the date his mother was put on probation following the attack was April 11, 1945 -- his sixth birthday.

John recounts the sickening tale of how alcohol tore at the fabric of his family in his second book Cracks in the Ceiling and is now caught in a whirl of book signings in his home town of Burnley and other towns across East Lancashire and beyond.

He hopes it will surpass the success of The Broken Biscuit, a tale of poverty and hardship gleaned from stories handed down by his mother and grandfather.

John's mother Winifred, now 89, of Moorland Road, Burnley, also features prominently in Cracks on the Ceiling, a story spanning the first 20 years of John's life until he entered National Service.

Winifred, voted Lancashire Woman of the Year in 2000 for her tireless efforts organising sales to raise money for various charities, was the inspiration for his books. "When I was a little lad I was mesmerised by my mother's stories," he said.

"She used to tell them so explicitly sometimes.

"There were eight of us -- mum, dad and six children -- living in a two-up, two-down house in Albion Street, Burnley.

"We had to go down 14 steps to an outside toilet and we only had cold water."

But John's hardship paled into insignificance when his mother told him about her upbringing in Bacup, when the majority of people lived in abject poverty and the only people with wealth were the mill owners.

"She was a natural storyteller but, even though she was a talented amateur writer, she would never write down her life story.

John felt it was a shame but understood that hurtful memories of her husband -- known as Jack the Lad or "Barney" at his local pub for his love of drunken rows, which often accompanied him home to Winifred and the children -- might be holding her back.

But about eight years ago, when he questioned her again, she asked him why he didn't write it all down himself.

When he asked her about all the hurtful issues she might not want people to know about, she replied: "I have brought you up to be your own person and if you want to do it, do it."

So John, who had only ever put pen to paper before to write letters and poems, set about transferring all the tales gleaned at his mother's knee to a word processor.

The result was The Broken Biscuit, so named because an old friend, Winifred Clarke, remembered they were usually the only sort found in the Cowell household as they battled against poverty.

Demand for the book outstripped supply and the original publishers, Cremer Press of Blackburn, had to reprint it.

The book sold about 9,000 copies before London Publishers John Blake took it on board and subsequently asked John if he had another book in the pipeline -- and now Cracks in the Ceiling, published last month, is also starting to take off.

Cracks in the Ceiling tells John's own story from his birth to his National Service in Cameroon.

He recalls his school life, post-war street parties, trips to the pawnbroker's and his work in the coal mines.

"It was the era of the knocker-up but you didn't need one in Albion Street -- every morning at 6.10am you would hear the colliers coming down the street, clip, clip," said John, who is now living temporarily in Burnley Road, Cliviger, after selling his home in Cravendale Avenue, Nelson.

Widower John, a staff nurse at Burnley General Hospital from the age of 38 to 55, now gives talks in local schools about his life and times.

One day, out of the blue, his telephone rang and it was Dame Thora Hird, telling him how much she enjoyed his book and how she took it to bed with her every night.

She told John: "I'm just an ordinary person and happen I've had a bit more luck then some. I have never lived in the conditions that you describe but I have been aware of them."

Cracks in the Ceiling -- so named because John and his brothers used to make images from the cracks in the ceiling of their bedroom -- is now on sale, priced £6.99.