Tortoise by Candlelight

It is a small book, acute, discreet and tender; it is also written with warm care and considerable taste – all qualities too easily overlooked * Kirkus Reviews *
An exceptional picture of disorganised family life * Observer *
Bawden is noted too for the sharp sense of humour that edges her tales of middle-class manners and mores towards satire, particularly when it all goes wrong * Guardian *

Nina Bawden was born in Ilford in 1925. During World War II, she was evacuated to Wales, an experience that informed her 1973 children’s classic, Carrie’s War. She studied PPE at Somerville College, Oxford, and began writing during her first marriage.

Bawden went on to write nearly fifty books for both children and adults, including an autobiography and a memoir about her experiences during and following the Potters Bar rail crash of May 2002. In this crash, her husband, Austen Kark, was killed, and she herself was seriously injured, but remained unbowed.

Several of her children’s novels have become modern classics, and many of her works have been translated into numerous languages. By the time of her death in 2012, Bawden was widely regarded as one of Britain’s most distinguished and best-loved novelists, with the majority of her books remaining in print.

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