Nina Bawden, writer of novels for adults and children, born in 1925, died on 22nd August 2012. “As a child, Nina said, she had felt wicked because the children in the books she read were all so good, and she was one of the first writers for children to create characters who could be jealous, selfish and bad-tempered” (
Guardian obituary).
Bawden alternated between writing for children and for adults year by year, describing this as “a useful and satisfyingly real way of working, making use of all my life, all memory, wasting nothing” (
Telegraph obituary). A
1994 interview discusses “the bright, purposeful, gutsy children in her books [and] the more defeated characters of her adult novels”. In a
2003 profile she describes a play she wrote being put on at school: “when I heard the dialogue I realised it was dreadful – one of the wicked hunters fell into a tiger trap … and he said 'Damn it Carruthers, I have broken my confounded leg.' And when I heard this I realised it was the most terrible thing anyone had ever done so I ran away to the lavatories and hid and wept."
Bawden’s best known novel for children is probably
Carrie’s War (1973), about children evacuated to Wales: this
review at Reading Matters gives a sense of the book and some quotations. There is also an
activity pack (PDF) and
teachers’ notes (Word). The
1974 television serial is on YouTube (link is to first episode).
The Peppermint Pig (1975) grew from stories from her mother and grandmother of growing up in Norfolk in the nineteenth century: this
review from The Book Bag gives a sense of it.
Bawden was interviewed on
Desert Island Discs in 1995. At 0.15 she talks about putting her foot in it over Wordsworth at her Oxford entrance interview; from 0.25 she talks about her son's illness.
She was recognised by several awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for
The Peppermint Pig and the Phoenix Award for
Carrie’s War.
Circles of Deceit (1987) was shortlisted for the Booker and
The Birds on the Trees (1970) for the
Lost Booker. Both of these adult novels drew on her experiences of her son’s schizophrenia.
Bawden was injured in the
Potters Bar rail crash in 2002, in which her husband was killed. She wrote
Dear Austen (
extract,
review) about the accident and its aftermath, including the unsuccessful campaign for a public enquiry.
posted by Renoroc at 2:10 PM on August 27, 2012