Novels

• Penny to Spend (1941)

Her first novel was advertised in the Glasgow Herald where its theme was described as “an experiment with time”;^[11] something which was noted in a review by Stevie Smith to be impossible, but made plausible by the author's skill.^[12]

• Winter Solstice (first published 1942 by Jonathan Cape in the UK and 1943 by Macmillan in the US; republished 1991 by Merlin Press with an introduction by Gabriele Griffin^{[note 1]})

Miss Cowlin has taken a very interesting subject for her second essay in fiction, and in the first half of her story has handled it convincingly and with literary skill. Her chief character is Alexandra Gollen, a woman of twenty-one when we first meet her, paralysed from the waist down and with the mentality of a child of twelve, at which age after a horrible childhood she lost her memory and the use of her legs as the result of a very severe shock. She lives in a small Lancashire town, and is cared for by her twin half-brothers who have a small tailor's business, working in the room in which she passes her dreamy, contented life. The influence that largely determines her recovery is the coming of Iris Young, a secondary schoolmistress of thirty with a vigorous and lively personality, and the steps that lead to Alexandra's recovery of the power to walk, and to the much slower revival of her earlier memories are probable and well-considered. The second half of the book does not reach the same level of achievement. Alexandra's unhealthy and overdrawn passion for Iris becomes very tedious, and we lose the sympathy and interest that she inspired in her earlier paralysed condition and in the first stages of her convalescence. We leave her as a whole, though slightly abnormal, human being on the verge of a natural but somewhat perfunctory love affair.
The writing, despite occasional marks of amateurishness, is vivid and graphic, and if the development of Alexandra's character had been on more attractive lines, Winter Solstice might have made an original and fascinating story. As it is, we are left with the feeling that our natural desire for her recovery has not been justifiably satisfied.

— Times Literary Supplement, 7 November 1942

Winter Solstice, first published in 1942 by Jonathan Cape, is a curious and compelling novel, detailing a psychological drama dressed in twentieth-century garb against a social backdrop of decidedly Victorian fabric.

— Gabriele Griffin, from the introduction of the 1991 republication

• The Holly and the Ivy (1950)

Her two characters are brilliantly drawn, and some of the passages between them are narrated in a way difficult to forget. In this as in other respects The Holly and the Ivy leaves the impression that uncommon reserves of thought and feeling have gone to its writing.

— The Scotsman^{[full citation needed]}

• The Slow Train Home (1951)

Miss Cowlin writes with distinction and great beauty, and she has an understanding of human motives which breathes life into everyone whom she depicts. It is true to describe this novel as romantic, but it is the best sort of realism as well.

— Truth^{[full citation needed]}

A good well-written honest book. Miss Cowlin uses prose of great clarity, and her writing is imbued with an unusual quality of charity. Her descriptions, both of people and places, have great lucidity, and she transcribes dialect – with a more accurate ear than most.

— Marghanita Laski, The Spectator^{[full citation needed]}

A very moving book, and a convincingly human one.

— John O'London's Weekly^{[full citation needed]}

• Rowanberry Wine (1952)

Here is a novel which states fearlessly the grimmer side of married middle life, when love requires grit rather than salt.

— The Listener^{[full citation needed]}

Fluent, intelligent and vivacious.

— The Spectator^{[full citation needed]}

Her prose is beautiful, and her vivid descriptions of the hot summer weather among the hills remain in the mind. This is a considerable advance on her last novel, and she is a novelist whom her adopted county may be glad to claim.

— The Yorkshire Post^{[full citation needed]}

• An End and a Beginning (1954)
• Draw the Well Dry (1955)
• The Pair of Them (1956)

Biographical novels

• Greenland Seas: The story of Scoresby the whaler (published 1965 by E. J. Arnold & Son Limited of Leeds, with illustrations by Ray Bailey)
• A Woman in the Desert: The story of Gertrude Bell (published 1967 by Frederick Muller Limited of London, with illustrations by Penny Carey)
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning (published 1968 by Frederick Muller, with illustrations by Sheila Bewley)
• Cleopatra: Queen of Egypt (published 1970 by Wayland Publishers)

Other works

• The Sound of Rain (1991)
• Winter Rooks (1998)
• Do you remember? Pickering 50 Years Ago (2000, Blackthorn Press)
• Pigeon Past (2002)
• The Sound of Rain and 99 other poems (2009, self-published)