Shirley Cooklin
Shirley Cooklin had a successful career as an actor, author and script writer for well known soaps. Now in her 90s, she has written an astonishing memoir about the tragic event that befell her family in 1984.
Biography
Born near Liverpool in 1930, as a child Shirley loved acting and writing. She attended the Central School of Speech and Drama (instead of taking up a place to read PPE at Oxford) following which she performed in rep playing junior leads and character roles. This led to roles in outer London theatres where one critic described her as ‘a sort of junior Joan Crawford’. Later a career in TV beckoned when she landed the lead in the much-loved TV show The Children of the New Forest. She is the author of KNOCKBACK, a book based on her time as a prison visitor which was made into a film starring Pauline Collins. Later she wrote scripts for Eastenders, The Bill, Emmerdale and Crossroads, and a book INSIDE OUT on the Criminal Justice System, to this day studied by students.
In 1984 her 18 year old son Ben was drowned at sea when the tall ship Marques he was crewing on sank during a freak storm. Like the other sea disasters of the time - the Herald of Free Enterprise and the Marchioness - the event made national headlines. Fobbed off by the owners as a tragic accident, yet convinced there had been foul play, she took it upon herself to find out what really happened. Her investigations led her to discover corruption and cover ups at the highest levels of society, and the case led to a high profile trial. Justice was eventually served, but not in the way she expected. 40 years after the event it is still painfully fresh in her mind. Her memoir of this time, BLAME NOT THE WIND, will be published in 2025 by HarperCollins. Gripping yet poignant, it is the story of the lengths to which a grieving yet fiercely determined mother will go in order to discover the truth.