Nina Bawden was born in Ilford in 1925. During World War II she was evacuated to Wales, an experience which informed her 1973 children's classic, Carrie's War. She studied PPE at Somerville College, Oxford and began writing during her first marriage. She went on to write for both children and adults, producing nearly fifty books, including an autobiography and a memoir about her experiences during and following the Potters Bar rail crash of May 2002, in which her husband, Austen Kark, was killed and she herself was seriously injured - but 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.