Nina Bawden (1925–2012)

Nina Bawden, née Mabey, was born in Ilford, in Essex, England. In 1943 she went to Oxford University to read philosophy, politics and economics, and received her B.A. degree in 1946 and a M.A. in 1951. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 40 books for both children and adults. Her debut book, a crime novel called Who Calls the Tune, was published in 1953. Her other fiction for adults included Circles of Deceit (1987) and The Ruffian on the Stair. Her first children's book, The Secret Passage, was published in 1963. Her children's books included Kept in the Dark, Humbug, The Birds on the Trees, The Outside Child, Granny the Pag, and Off the Road. Her best-known book, Carrie's War (1973), was adapted for television in both 1974 and 2004. In 1994, she published In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography, and in 2005, she published the memoir Dear Austen, addressed to her second husband, Austen Kark, who had been killed three years earlier in a train derailment. She received numerous awards for her work, including the 1976 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Peppermint Pig and the 1977 Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year Award for Afternoon of a Good Woman. She was made a CBE in 1995.