Nina Bawden’s portrait of a family in crisis raises fundamental questions about parents and children, offering tentative hope, but no tidy solutions.

The expulsion from school of their eldest son shatters the middle-class security of Maggie and Charlie. Veering between private agony and public cheerfulness, Maggie and Charlie struggle to support their son and cope with the reactions - and advice - of friends and relatives.

Nina Bawden’s 1970 novel was one of the six books shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker, in 2010.

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Virago
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Nina Bawden

Nina Bawden

About the Author

Nina Bawden was the author of more than 50 books for adults and children and was perhaps best known for her children’s novel Carrie’s War (1973), a story of wartime child evacuees.
More about Nina Bawden

Other nominated books by Nina Bawden

Circles of Deceit