Most Popular Books by Nina Bawden

''A born story teller'' INDEPENDENT ''Nina Bawden''s readers should be numbered like the sands of the sea'' GUARDIAN ''The first time the children saw the Devil, he was sitting next to them in the second row of deckchairs in the bandstand. He was biting his nails.'' So begins the horrifying story of a madman loose in a small seaside town - his prey the very young and the very old. Seen through the eyes of Hilary - a precocious, highly imaginative, lonely child - it is a chilling story about the perceptiveness of children, the blindness of parents and the allure of strangers. As the adults carry on with their own grown-up capers, Hilary is led further and further into the twilight world of one man''s terrifyingly warped view of normal life. But will she have the sense to resist it?

''A darkly comedic tale of adultery that features a dangerously "good" and disciplined heroine'' KIRKUS REVIEWS ''Throughout her career Bawden has concentrated on the careful depiction of character, feelings and behaviour'' GUARDIAN At fifteen, Daisy, confident and cherished, is appalled to hear that Ruth''s father locked her in the old garden ice house as a childhood punishment: no wonder her friend shelters in make believe. The revelation of that primitive cruelty cements a friendship in which protection plays no small part. Years later, middle aged, they remain close friends and live on the same street. So when Daisy''s husband dies suddenly, Ruth''s discovery that the marriage was unhappy is the first stage in the unravelling of the certainties she has wrapped around her adult life. Friendship, love, marriage and above all, the scorching effects of adultery, come under the microscope in this dextrous novel. Journeying from a terrifying suburban household to its unexpected conclusion in the Egyptian Pharaoh''s tombs, The Ice House is startling, tragic and humorous by turns.

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.

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.

Originally abandoned by her actor parents who later attempt to gain custody, Cat wages a spirited campaign to decide her own fate and remain with her grandmother.

A twelve-year-old girl and her friends try to discover the true identity of the small boy who seems to have no name.

''Absorbing and quietly uncompromising, redolent with the vibrant smells and colours of Majorca, and of Spain'' DAILY TELEGRAPH ''A highly revealing account, not only of a woman''s life, but of a whole extraordinary passage in one contemporary European country'' FINANCIAL TIMES ''Nina Bawden is one of the really attractive practitioners of the genre the feminine novel-not a dismissive referral in her case'' KIRKUS REVIEWS Elizabeth and Richard, are on holiday in Morocco, travelling from its fertile coast to the barren uplands beyond the Atlas mountains. During the expedition''s adventures and mishaps, Elizabeth surveys her eighteen-year marriage and its accumulations of grievance, frustration and betrayal. Nina Bawden allows us to see the ambivalences and deceptions on both sides as this touching and often subversively comic novel moves towards a shocking catastrophe and a wryly surprising coda.

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.

''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.

''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.

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.

''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.

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

This series offers classic and contemporary fiction for schools to suit a range of ages and tastes. In this book, Cora goes to stay with Angel Dearheart. When Angel''s mother''s ring goes missing, Cora is blamed for it. If this is one of Angel''s nasty tricks, then this time she has gone too far.