Best Selling Books by Nina Bawden

SHORTLISTED FOR THE LOST MAN BOOKER PRIZE ''Nina Bawden gets inside the skins of all her people and shows them as paradoxical, crotchety, adulterous, ambitious and completely human . . . A beautifully sustained impression of the impossibility of family life'' INDEPENDENT ''A story about a middle-class family in crisis, which is so good, and so true'' GUARDIAN The expulsion from school of their eldest son shatters the middle-class security of Maggie, a writer, and Charlie, a journalist. Since childhood, Toby has been diffident and self-absorbed, but the threat of drug-taking and his refusal - or inability - to discuss his evident unhappiness, disturbs them sufficiently to seek professional help. Veering between private agony and public cheerfulness, Maggie and Charlie struggle to support their son and cope with the reactions- and advice- of friends and relatives. Noted for the acuity with which she reaches into the heart of relationships, Nina Bawden here excels in revealing the painful, intimate truths of a family in crisis. Toby''s situation is explored with great tenderness, while Maggie''s grief and self-recrimination are rigorously, if compassionately, observed.

When the Second World War air raids threaten their safety in the city, Carrie and her brother Nick are evacuated to a small Welsh village. But the countryside has dangers and adventures of its own - and a group of characters who will change Carrie''s life for ever. There''s mean Mr Evans, who won''t let the children eat meat; but there’s also kind Auntie Lou. There''s brilliant young Albert Sandwich, another evacuee, and Mr Johnny, who speaks a language all of his own. Then there''s Hepzibah Green, the witch at Druid’s Grove who makes perfect mince pies, and the ancient skull with its terrifying curse... For adults and young people aged eight and over. Emma Reeves has created a stunning stage adaptation of Nina Bawden’s much loved classic account of life as an evacuee in the 1940s, which opened at the Lillian Bayliss Theatre in November 2006. This edition includes teachers'' notes and activities for classes based on the play.

''This is the off-side of lust in plush suburbia, described by a crypto-moralist with a mischievous sense of humour'' SUNDAY TIMES ''A born story-teller'' INDEPENDENT ''The modest and moderating virtues of Nina Bawden''s novels can easily be demonstrated by her earlier title, The Grain of Truth'' KIRKUS REVIEWS Emma''s anxious and manipulative plea, ''Someone listen to me'', opens - and closes - this deliciously uncomfortable novel in which Nina Bawden explores myriad emotional disguises with her characteristic acuity. When Emma''s father-in-law falls down the stairs to his death, she is convinced she pushed him in an act of wish-fulfilment. To her husband Henry and her close friend Holly, this is unthinkable. Guilt is simply Emma''s obsession in a humdrum domestic existence enlivened by romantic fantasy. For Holly, who successfully fields a string of love affairs, sexual pleasures are more easily attainable, whereas Henry, a Divorce lawyer, prides himself on being a realist. Each tells their story in turn, illuminating and distorting their separate versions of the truth. As they do so, an intricate jigsaw of the private deceits with which they shore up everyday life emerges.

On the Scottish island of Skua, friendship develops between the lonely and mysterious Perdita and a blind girl, Janey. Both possess a kind of second sight - Janey''s is the ability to hear, feel and remember more than others, and Perdita''s is the ominous legacy of her being a witch''s daughter. When Janey''s brother, Tom, starts investigating a cluster of mysterious events and suspicious characters, all three become entwined in an adventure of hidden jewels, desperate criminals and dangerous detection. Written in 1963, The Witch''s Daughter showcases Nina Bawden''s innate regard for the integrity of her young characters. As she has said: ''I like writing for children. It seems to me that most people underestimate their understanding and the strength of their feelings and in my books for them I try to put this right.'' Hugely admired on publication by both reviewers and readers, it was described as ''thrilling'' by the Times Literary Supplement.

''It is a measure of Bawden''s skill, that she manages to show both the terrors of extreme longevity and its comic potential'' THE TIMES ''An upper-middle class version of Mike Leigh''s Secrets and Lies'' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ''Bawden has a penetraing eye for both the insalubrious and gorgeous detail, homing in with language that is always crisp and precise'' GUARDIAN In six days, Silas Mudd will celebrate his 100th birthday. He is alarmingly healthy and tough as old boots - which is more than can be said of his son Will. ''Not sure he''ll make old bones,'' Silas confides loudly to Coral, his daughter-in-law. Grumpily flattered by the fuss over his impending party - even from his irritating family, Silas'' greater pleasure is ''to go over his life'' and the women whom he loved and who made trouble for him: his sterling and capable Aunt; his wonderfully vulgar second wife Bella; Molly, a music-hall singing sister; and Effie, his first and hopeless wife. But there is no doubt that Silas''s son and his two daughters will be at the party. Best outfits and good form are what they think Silas wants served up, and they dare not disappoint him. This is not a family that reveals disturbing thoughts or truths. Silas is the only one left who knows exactly what is shoring up his family. So he sits, waiting and thinking, wondering what would happen if he were to tell.

''I am an outside child. That is what Plato Jones calls me.'' Jane Tucker is thirteen years old when she discovers she has a half-brother and sister, a revelation which promises to bring both excitement and succour to her ordinary life. But obstacles lie in her path when, for unknown reasons, she is prevented from meeting them. Aided by her friend Plato, Jane tracks down her brother and sister to their home in the East End of London. There she finds still more surprises lie in store for her. Can Jane at last be part of a ''proper'' family, or must she always remain the outside child? This is the story of a girl and her family and the secrets they keep from one another. Both funny and poignant, The Outside Child is a beautifully drawn study of adolescence from one of Britain''s most skilled writers for children.

When an unexpected inheritance threatens to change his life with his adopted family in London, an eleven-year-old foundling runs away from home.

''It is a small book, acute, discreet and tender; it is also written with warm care and considerable taste - all qualities too easily overlooked'' KIRKUS REVIEWS ''An exceptional picture of disorganised family life'' OBSERVER ''Bawden is noted too for the sharp sense of humour that edges her tales of middle-class manners and mores towards satire, particularly when it all goes wrong'' GUARDIAN With the ferocity of a mother tiger defending her cubs, fourteen-year-old Emmie Bean watches over her household: her amiable drunken father, her gaunt, evangelical old grandmother, her beautiful, wayward sister Alice and most precious of all, eight-year-old Oliver, who has the countenance of an angel and the ethical sense of a cobra. But with the arrival of new neighbours, the outside world intrudes into the isolated privacy of family life and Emmie''s kingdom is no longer secure. Combining the guile of a young child with the desperation of adolescence, Emmie fights to stave off the changes- and the revelations- that growing up necessarily brings. Powerful, heart-rending, but never sentimental, Tortoise by Candlelight is a captivating excursion into the landscape of youth.

Catriona Natasha Brooke''s granny is totally unlike other people''s grandmothers. When she isn''t dressed in motorbike leathers, Granny the Pag wears dirty black skirts that trail on the ground and fastens her old sweaters with an enormous black broochencrusted with diamonds. Even worse, she smokes! The Pag can be a social embarrassment, but when Catriona''s relationship with her is threatened, Catriona fights for the right to choose where she lives and who with - she chooses Granny the Pag.

Circles of Deceit is narrated by a painter who specialises as a copyist, this is his story: ''bothered by bills and artistic conscience in about equal measure. . .susceptible to, bullied and badgered by women.'' Major figures on the canvas are Clio, his child-bride; Helen, his first wife; his mother Maisie. They confound lies and the truth in a subtle weave, while the silent agony of the painter''s son is a poignant reflection on the busy web of deception. And as the copyist transcribes his modern versions of Old Masters, so the past keeps breaking through the surface of the present, until fact and fiction like art and life, meet in a remarkable conclusion.

When eight-year-old Cora is sent to stay next door with the seemingly pleasant woman called Aunt Sunday, she is tormented by Aunt Sunday''s mean-spirited, deceitful daughter, but finds an ally in Aunt Sunday''s elderly mother.

''A cast of nice, idiosyncratic characters . . . in the Turkish political climate'' NEW YORK TIMES ''She held her readers'' attention with her taut, inventive unfolding of twists and turns'' GUARDIAN ''The comedy lies, as in the best and subtlest of comedies, in the exquisite patterning'' NEW STATESMAN George is an unusually successful travel agent, providing other people with the adventures he dare not risk. Though content to wrap himself in fantasies, he is haunted by the fact that ''the important things happened whilst his back was turned'' and by the belief that he fathered the daughter - now a desirable young woman - of his best friends, Sam and Claire. To avoid temptation, George stumbles into a disastrous marriage and determines to mould himself into a supportive husband. But a holiday in Turkey snaps his private world when George finds himself in the midst of intrigue and murder and is forced to acknowledge that life is not the fairy-tale he''d imagined. In this superbly constructed and mercilessly observed novel, part comedy, part thriller, Nina Bawden exposes the fictions we impose on our lives.

''Dazzlingly effective . . . not easy to forget'' FINANCIAL TIMES ''Continually surprising, witty and often disquieting, Walking Naked is one of Nina Bawden''s most impressive novels'' COSMOPOLITAN ''Among the most perceptive and accomplished novelists writing today'' P. D. JAMES Laura is happily married, a mother and a successful novelist. Although she is prey to night terrors, she is adept at smoothing the disorder of reality into controlled prose. Walking Naked telescopes the whole of Laura''s life - childhood, marriages, triumphs and disappointments - into a day in which the past and present converge. It begins with a game of tennis played for duty rather than amusement and progresses, via an afternoon party of old friends and jaded emotions, to a bewildering visit to Laura''s son, imprisoned on a drugs'' charge. At its close, the possibility of death within the family hauls unresolved conflicts centre stage and Laura strips herself of the posturing and self-deceit with which she has cloaked her vulnerability.

Lonely and forlorn after their mother''s death and their sudden arrival at Aunt Mabel''s seaside boarding-house, John, Mary and Ben Mallory are unimpressed with their new life in England. But there are wonderful surprises in store for them when they discover a secret way into the grand and empty house next door. Soon all sorts of unexpected events will unfold as the siblings encounter a whole host of eccentric characters and happenings. Completed in 1963, The Secret Passage is Nina Bawden''s first children''s novel and was written especially for her own three children after they had discovered a secret passage in the cellar of their house. It beautifully reflects her own inquisitive nature - as she herself has said: ''I was a keyhole child, fearsomely curious'' - wedded to her subtly innovative ability to empathise with the child''s view.

It is 1953 and Joanna, Kate and Poll, who are eighteen, twelve and six, are living in a riverside suburb of London with their mother Ellen and their stepfather Boyd, the local doctor. Then the past arrives to upset the present in the person of Aunt Hat, a gossipy old friend whose husband has been imprisoned for assulting her, and who seems to bring news from a different world of chaos and drama. The real danger, however, comes not from Aunt Hat''s indiscretions but from the girls themselves. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.