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Walking Naked
'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.
The Finding
Since nobody knows Alex's birthday, he celebrates his finding day every year. On his eleventh finding day, Alex's gran takes him to visit old Mrs Angel, her neighbour, who gives him a photo of a girl in an old photograph frame. The girl in the photo, Mrs Angel's daughter who disappeared years ago, looks a bit like Alex.
On the Run
Ben, eleven years old and the youngest of the Mallory children, has left his aunt and siblings to come to London where his widower father wishes to introduce him to his young future step-mother.Unable to return home when his brother and sister become ill, Ben is left on his own to explore the maze of walled gardens which surround his new home. Soon he meets Thomas, the son of an exiled East African Prime Minister, and Lil, a fatherless cockney waif.All three children, troubled and contending with the dislocation of their new lives, become entwined in each others_ journeys of self-discovery and adventure.In Nina Bawden_s much-praised second novel for young readers, the lessons and pains of childhood are evinced with characteristic deftness, combining sympathy, affection and timeless wit.
Carrie's War
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.
Afternoon of a Good Woman. Nina Bawden
Today, Tuesday, the day that Penelope has chosen to leave her husband, is the first really warm day of spring...' Penelope has always done her best to be a good wife, a good mistress, a good mother - and a good magistrate. Today she is more conscious that usual of the thinness of the thread that distinguishes good from bad, the law-abiding from the criminal. Sitting in court, hearing a short, sad case of indecent exposure and a long, confused theft, she finds herself examining her own sex life (how would all that sound in court?) her own actions and intentions while she observes the defendants in the dock. This novel is a tour-de-force , an ingeniously constructed novel in which Nina Bawden counterpoints public appearance with private behaviour in her heroine, Penelope. The result is a marvellous picture of a not always admirable but engagingly complex and very human heroine. As always, Bawden offers a compelling story, sharply witty and beautifully observed. But it is also an honest and provocative book tracing the divergent courses of morality and justice, and uncomfortably posing, as Penelope does of herself, the question: who and what is a good woman?
Afternoon Of A Good Woman
'One of the wisest and most versatile of our novelists' CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, GUARDIAN 'So intelligent and clear-eyed that every page seems to peel another layer of pretence' ISABEL QUIGLEY, FINANCIAL TIMES 'Nina Bawden's novels are self-perpetuating pleasures' KIRKUS REVIEWS 'Today, Tuesday, the day that Penelope has chosen to leave her husband, is the first really warm day of spring . . . ' Penelope has always done her best to be a good wife, a good mistress, a good mother - and a good magistrate. Today she is more conscious that usual of the thinness of the thread that distinguishes good from bad, the law-abiding from the criminal. Sitting in court, hearing a short, sad case of indecent exposure and a long, confused theft, she finds herself examining her own sex life - what would that sound like in court? - and her own actions and intentions. How would the court judge what she's about to do this afternoon . . . ?
Humbug
Cora and her older brother and sister are to stay with her grandparents for six months while their parents are in Japan. When Granny is hospitalized, Cora is moved next door, where 'Aunt Sunday' (no relation) has a daughter her age. Everyone thinks that Angelica is the sweetest little girl . . . but Cora knows better. "A splendid, thought-provoking story".--Kirkus Reviews, pointered review. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
A Woman Of My Age
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.
A Grain Of Truth
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 . . .
The Runaway Summer
Deeply unhappy at the recent divorce of her parents, Mary is sent away to live by the sea with her distant grandfather and the detestable Aunt Alice. Feeling abandoned, without even the company of her beloved pet cat Noakes, the summer looks set to become one long stretch of unendurable loneliness. But suddenly she is dragged, half unwittingly, into a situation that will force her to come to the aid of others more vulnerable than herself. So begins her runaway summer, as she sets about helping Simon, the son of a local policeman, and a young illegal immigrant boy arrived from Kenya, frightened and all alone. The Runaway Summer was first published in 1969 to typically universal acclaim. It is, in the words of the Times Educational Supplement, an 'unputdownable gem of a book. The tale is beautifully constructed in diamond-hard language.'
