British - Writer | January 19, 1925 - August 22, 2012
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.
Nina Bawden
SchoolCollegeYearBackGrammarUs
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.
BackMoreNeckBeenWouldCourse
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.
FearPeopleSafetyYouDutyFail
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.
FriendMotherStreetSheTellUp
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.
LifeGoodAgeOld AgeWritingYou
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.
TimeTogetherHappyPeopleHusband
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.
EducationPeopleMeThinkLearnWho
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.
LifeChildrenTimeWritingThink
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.
HopeChildrenHelpMomentsBackGo
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.
ChangeTodayWorldGenerationBoots
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.
ChildrenWorldThinkBetterConfused
The train we had so confidently boarded had been speeding at almost 100 miles an hour and it had derailed. Someone, I can't remember who, showed me a newspaper photograph of the carriage we had been sitting in tilted on its side on a station platform next to a large notice that said Welcome to Potters Bar.
WelcomeMeSomeoneRememberTrain
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