Carrie's War

'A poignant and realistic picture of what the second world war was like for a child' – Shirley Hughes, The Guardian‘A touching, utterly convincing book’ – Jacqueline Wilson, author of The Story of Tracy BeakerCarrie's War offers a window into the life of evacuees during World War Two, full of Nina Bawden's award-winning humour and heart. Perfect for ages 9+.Carrie and her little brother Nick are evacuated from wartime London to the Welsh hills. Their new home with strict Mr Evans and his kind but timid sister, Auntie Lou, offers little comfort.But then Carrie and Nick visit Albert, another evacuee, and Hepzibah Green welcomes them into her warm kitchen. People say that she is a witch, but Hepzibah’s delicious cooking and enthralling stories are impossible to resist.With the help of Albert, Hepzibah, and even Auntie Lou, Carrie and Nick begin to settle in. But before long, Carrie’s loyalty is tested. Will she be persuaded to betray her new friends?

Nina Bawden was one of Britain's most distinguished and best-loved novelists for both adults and young people. Several of her novels for children – Carrie's War, a Phoenix Award winner in 1993; The Peppermint Pig, which won the Guardian Fiction Award; The Runaway Summer; and Keeping Henry –have become contemporary classics.She wrote over forty novels, slightly more than half of which are for adults, an autobiography and a memoir describing her experiences during and following the Potters Bar rail crash in May 2002, which killed her husband, Austen Kark, and from which she emerged seriously injured - but fighting. She was shortlisted for the 1987 Man Booker Prize for Circles of Deceit and several of her books, like Family Money (1991), have been adapted for film or television. Many of her works have been translated into numerous languages.Born in London in 1925, Nina studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University in the same year as Margaret Thatcher. Following Potter's Bar, she was movingly portrayed as a character in the David Hare play, The Permanent Way, about the privatization of the British railways. She received the prestigious S T Dupont Golden Pen Award for a lifetime's contribution to literature in 2004, and in 2010 The Birds on the Trees was shortlisted for the Lost Booker of 1970.Bawden passed away on Wednesday 22 August 2012, at her home in North London with her family around her.