I WANT to sincerely the LT for the article which included me in the 'Famous Lancashire People.' It brought a lump to my throat to be included in such an article.

Yes, I know I'm recognised worldwide, and each year I receive many thousands of letters from every corner of the globe.

It's true they mean a lot to me, but it's only when you are recognised by your true homeland, that you realise who you are, and what you have achieved with your life.

My brother sent me the article, and of all the mail I received that day and over the years, and however much I value and am humbled by the readers' mail, the LT article moved me more deeply.

It's at a time like this when you recall the days of poverty and hardship, and all those precious moments when I escaped the arguments and troubles to sit on the doorstep of Henry Street and King Street in Blackburn and the now non-existent Derwent Street, where I would watch the world go by and soak it all in.

Now, the characters and the events of those bitter days come out in my books, to be read worldwide. There is even talk of bringing the characters to the screen, and wouldn't that be wonderful?

Whoever would have thought a snotty-nosed, ragged kid like me would be listed alongside the likes of Gracie Fields and Eric Morecambe?

As a child and in spite of the poverty and the hardship, I loved my Blackburn town and with a fierce passion, and even though my mother took me south when my parents split up, I still love my hometown even now, with that same burning ache.

Though I married a southerner, and bore our two sons, my heart will be forever in Blackburn, amongst the cobbled streets and the old picture houses.

On jazzband night, me and my brothers and sister would cover our faces in soot and bang the saucepans outside the pubs for a penny or two.

I had my first kiss under the clock in the market place. It broke my heart when the vandal councillors tore it down and I cried for a week when they demolished Cicely-Bridge Mill where our mam used to work.

All these memories run through my blood and are forever etched in my heart. I will keep them alive in my stories, and let the newcomers know what a wonderful, warm and sincere place they have happened upon.

Yes, Blackburn has changed, with the old making way for the new and cobbles being Tarmacked over in the name of progress.

But my Blackburn and yours, our wonderful Lancashire far and wide, its peoples and its values, will live on in the hearts and minds of its people, in my readers far and wide and in the books that I write and the stories that I tell, of a place that, whatever happens will be forever England.

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for reminding readers that each and every one of them, whatever their culture and creed, are now part of a place they should value.

For me, my family and for others of us, it is the most unique and wonderful place in all the world.

JOSEPHINE COX, Bucks.