Nina Bawden

Nina Bawden
source
Name	Nina Bawden
Birth date	19 January 1925
Birth place	Ilford, Essex, England
Death date	22 August 2012
Death place	London, England
Occupation	Novelist, children's writer
Nationality	British
Notableworks	Carrie's War, The Peppermint Pig, The Birds on the Trees
Awards	Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, Phoenix Award

Nina Bawden was a distinguished British novelist acclaimed for her children's literature and adult fiction, often exploring themes of displacement, family dynamics, and moral complexity. Her writing career spanned over five decades, producing classic works like Carrie's War, which became a staple of English literature curricula. Bawden was also a committed public intellectual, serving as a magistrate and a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain.

Early life and education

Born in Ilford, Essex, she was the daughter of Ellaline and Charles Bawden, a Royal Marines officer. Her childhood was marked by evacuation during the Blitz, an experience that profoundly influenced her later writing, notably in Carrie's War. Bawden was educated at Ilford County High School before winning a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford, where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics and was a contemporary of Margaret Thatcher. At Oxford University, she became involved with the Oxford University Dramatic Society and developed her literary ambitions, graduating with a degree in 1946.

Literary career

Bawden published her first novel, Who Calls the Tune, in 1953, beginning a prolific output that included over forty novels for both adults and children. She gained significant acclaim for her children's books, with The Peppermint Pig winning the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1975. Her adult novels, such as The Birds on the Trees (shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and Circles of Deceit, were praised for their psychological insight and social observation. Bawden was a skilled practitioner of realism, often setting her stories in World War II or contemporary Britain, and her work was frequently adapted for BBC television and radio.

Personal life and later years

In 1946, she married Harry Bawden, with whom she had two sons before the marriage ended in divorce. She later married Austen Kark, a senior executive at the BBC World Service, in 1954. Their life in London was tragically altered in 2002 when both were seriously injured in the Potters Bar rail crash; Austen Kark died from his injuries. Bawden became a prominent campaigner for railway safety, giving evidence at the subsequent inquest and working with the Rail Safety and Standards Board. She continued to write and publish into her eighties, remaining a respected figure in the British literary scene until her death in London in 2012.

Selected works

Among her most celebrated children's novels are Carrie's War (1973), The Peppermint Pig (1975), and The Robbers (1979). Notable adult fiction includes A Woman of My Age (1967), The Birds on the Trees (1970), and Circles of Deceit (1987). Her later works include the family memoir In My Own Time (1994) and the novel Dear Austen (2005), which addressed the loss of her husband. Many of her books have been republished by Penguin Books and remain in print, with Carrie's War also adapted into a television series by the BBC.

Awards and recognition

Bawden received the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1975 and the Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association in 1993 for Keeping Henry. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1995 for her services to literature. In 2004, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her novel Carrie's War was named one of the top ten in the BBC's The Big Read survey, cementing its status as a modern children's classic.

Category:English novelists Category:English children's writers Category:20th-century British novelists