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Nina Bawden

Nina Bawden Books

Novelist

Nina Bawden was a British novelist celebrated for her poignant and often humorous storytelling. Born on January 19, 1925, she spent much of her career exploring the complexities of human relationships and the social landscape of post-war Britain. Bawden's works are characterized by their insightful and often satirical portrayal of human nature and social issues, reflecting her own experiences and observations.

The Peppermint Pig

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In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography

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Dear Austen

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Walking Naked

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Related Quotes

“I suppose I do complain sometimes. Who doesn't? We all know (or believe secretly) that when we were children we were happy and trusting and hopeful and good and that we would still be all these pleasant things if sometime, somewhere, somehow, we had not been betrayed.”

Book:Walking Naked

Source: Walking Naked

“Poll knew quite well why her mother disliked Annie Dowsett, because she liked her for just the same reason. Annie was rough, she wore old clothes all the time, she fought with boys and was ready for anything.”

Friends Girls Tomboy

Book:The Peppermint Pig

Source: The Peppermint Pig

“She wished she could think of something to say to comfort her mother, and not just about Johnnie, but about something much worse that she knew and that Mother didn't. Father had left them and one day, when they all grew up and went away too, Mother would be quite alone.”

Fear Growing Up

Book:The Peppermint Pig

Source: The Peppermint Pig

“It seemed to Poll, suddenly, that everyone was always looking forward to something wonderful that might never happen. Lily to being a famous actress, Mother to Dad coming home, Theo to being grown up, not an odd and lonely little boy but a person with friends, Father to making his fortune… It was a dangerous way to go on. The only safe things to be happy about were things that were over and gone.”

Book:The Peppermint Pig

Source: The Peppermint Pig

“I'm frightened," Poll said. "Oh, you have to be brave to look forward," Aunt Sarah said. "Come on now, hold my hand." She stood up and brushed her dress down and looked at Poll keenly, as if she saw into her mind. "Things do go right sometimes," she said.”

Book:The Peppermint Pig

Source: The Peppermint Pig

“It would be terrible for them to have a father they couldn't look up to. One who had done something he believed to be wrong.”

Character Integrity Fathers

Book:The Peppermint Pig

Source: The Peppermint Pig

“Remember, Lily, that's the worst thing about poverty! Not hunger or leaky boots, but the way it drains out your spirit! However things turn out, you must never let that happen to you. Promise me!" (Mother)”

Character Spirit Hope Poverty

Book:The Peppermint Pig

Source: The Peppermint Pig

“The kind of response I hope for when I write my novels for children: to give them a chance to recognize something of their own feelings -- about themselves, their parents, their friends -- and their own situation as a kind of subject race, always at the mercy of the adults who mostly run their lives for them.”

Giving Writing Kind Children Feelings Running Parent Chance Race Situation Novel Subjects Adults Mercy Response

Author:Nina Bawden

“I am not a victim. I am an angry survivor.”

Victim Angry Survivor

Book:Dear Austen

Source: Dear Austen

“All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people.”

People Stories Use Events Terrible Tragedy Suits Liars Twists

Book:In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography

Source: In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography

“All writers are thieves; theft is a necessary tool of the trade.”

Writing Tools Trade Thieves Theft

Author:Nina Bawden

“I was born in a small suburb of Ilford in a rather nasty housing estate that my mother despised. She had grown up in the country, so when the war came and I was evacuated to Wales she thought I was much better off there.”

War Country Mother Born Nasty Estates Better Off Housing Despised Suburbs Wales

Author:Nina Bawden

“I like stirring the pot - I think it's part of my duty, to shake people up a bit - make them look at things in a different way.”

People Thinking Way Looks Different Bits Duty Different Ways Shakes Pot Stirring

Author:Nina Bawden

“Children often have a much stronger concept of morality than adults.”

Children Morality Concepts Adults Stronger

Author:Nina Bawden

“A writer's work may be a coded autobiography, but only a very close friend could decipher it.”

Writing May Autobiography Close Friends Decipher

Book:In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography

Source: In My Own Time: Almost an Autobiography

“I was cleaning out the pigsty at a farm in Wales, where my mother had rented a room, when the results of my final school exam were handed to me by the postman, along with the news that I had a state scholarship to Oxford. I had waited for this letter for so many weeks that I had abandoned hope, deciding that I had failed ignominiously.”

States School Mother Rooms Results Week News Letters Finals Farms Abandoned Cleaning Scholarship Exam Oxford Wales Postman

Author:Nina Bawden

“Adults get more confused by social worker jargon. Unlike children, they are also less likely to see two sides of an argument, and they no longer think they can make the world a better place. That can make them rather boring, I suppose.”

Thinking World Children Two Social Sides Adults Argument Workers Boring Confused Better Place Two Sides Social Worker Jargon

Author:Nina Bawden

“I dislike the word 'victim.' I dislike being told that I 'lost' my husband - as if I had idly abandoned you by the side of the railway track like an unwanted pair of old shoes.”

Ifs Lost Sides Husband Victim Shoes Track Pairs My Husband Dislike Abandoned Unwanted Railway Old Shoes

Author:Nina Bawden

“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.”

People Writing Trying Children Book Feelings Seems Understanding Underestimate

Author:Nina Bawden

“But I don't write about sex for today's teenagers. Or Doc Martens boots either. I'm more interested in exploring how exactly the world is run, which doesn't really change that much from one generation to another.”

World Writing Running Today Sex Generations Teenager Boots Exploring

Author:Nina Bawden

“I would hate to live in the country, unless I was living on a farm.”

Country Hate Farms Living On

Author:Nina Bawden

“One good reason for writing novels based on your life is that you have something to read in old age when you've forgotten what happened.”

Writing Reason Age Life Is Novel Happened Forgotten Old Age

Author:Nina Bawden

“People's lives are in the care of the railways when they get on a train. The railways should remember that.”

People Should Care Remember Train Railway

Author:Nina Bawden

“People who don't read seem to me mysterious. I don't know how they think or learn about other people. Novels are a very important part of our education.”

People Thinking Knows Important Seems Novel Know How Mysterious

Author:Nina Bawden

“Ten thousand pounds is the legal value of a negligently taken life, of a child or a parent. A cold and somewhat mean-spirited calculation: you would do better if you slipped on a paving-stone and broke a front tooth.”

Ifs Mean Children Values Parent Taken Fronts Cold Thousand Ten Stones Teeth Broke Pounds Calculations Spirited Mean Spirited Paving

Author:Nina Bawden

“There are many times when I think I would have rather died with my husband. It would have been pleasanter, simpler. But it would have been worse for the children and the family in general.”

Thinking Children Has Beens Husband Died My Husband

Author:Nina Bawden

“I've never found it made the slightest difference being a woman - though there is a sort of feeling that as you get older you're not so interesting.”

Made Feelings Found Differences Interesting Being A Woman

Author:Nina Bawden

“I grew up on a suburban street with lace curtains and dull neighbours, so I made up stories to tell my friend, in which they became serial killers and burglars. She told her mother, who then told mine.”

Made Stories Mother Streets Mines Grew Grew Up My Friends Dull Killers Curtains Neighbour Serials Serial Killer Lace Burglars Made Up Stories

Author:Nina Bawden

“I wanted to be a war reporter - scrabbling around, exposing things. I didn't want to go to university, I wanted to get a job, but Auntie Beryl said I should go to Oxford.”

Want Should Said War Wanted Jobs University Reporters Exposing Oxford Auntie

Author:Nina Bawden

“I hope in my books I help children to see their strengths, and show them I have some idea of what they may occasionally be going through. Especially at tricky moments when it is easier to go back and evade things rather than go forwards and confront them.”

May Children Book Ideas Moments Helping Shows Easier Tricky

Author:Nina Bawden

“I met my second husband on a bus. We looked at each other and that was it. We were both married to other people at the time and behaved badly, but we didn't seem to have any choice. We were very happy for nearly 50 years and would still be together if it wasn't for the bloody railways.”

People Ifs Years Stills Seems Together Choices Mets Husband Married Bus Bloody Very Happy Railway

Author:Nina Bawden

“I met Richard Burton, an RAF cadet on a two-term course. I would have flirted more enthusiastically if it had not been for the horrid boils on the back of his neck.”

Ifs Two Courses Term Mets Necks Cadets Raf

Author:Nina Bawden

“If you are going to make companies, corporations, actually responsible for the safety of other people's lives, then if they fail in their duty, the only thing to prevent them failing in their duty is the fear that they would be put behind bars.”

People Ifs Would Be Behinds Company Failing Duty Responsible Safety Bars Corporations

Author:Nina Bawden

“Life isn't so complicated for children. They have more time to think about the really important things. That's why I occasionally moralise in my children's books in a way I wouldn't dare when writing for adults.”

Thinking Way Writing Children Important Book Adults Important Things Dare Complicated My Children More Time Time To Think Children's Books

Author:Nina Bawden

“Margaret Thatcher was in my year, and our first-year college photograph shows us standing side by side in the back row. We were both grammar school girls on state scholarships.”

Years Firsts States Shows School Girl Sides College Standing Photograph Grammar Scholarship Grammar School School Girl

Author:Nina Bawden

About the Author

Born: January 19, 1925
Died: August 22, 2012
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 35

Related Topics

Children People Writing Ifs Thinking Adults Book Fear Feelings Husband

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The Peppermint PigRelated source material

In My Own Time: Almost an AutobiographyRelated source material

Dear AustenRelated source material

Walking NakedRelated source material

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