Lynne Reid Banks, author of over forty published books for children and adults, has died at the age of 94.
Born in Barnes, London in 1929 to a Scottish doctor and an Irish actress, Lynne was evacuated to Canada at the start of the Second World War, where she spent five years. She returned to London and attended RADA before working at ITN as one of the UK’s first female television journalists. Her first novel, The L-Shaped Room, was published in 1960 and despite causing outrage at the time for its portrayal of an unmarried mother-to-be, was later adapted for cinema to great critical acclaim.
In the early 1960s Lynne went to live in Israel with her husband, the sculptor Chaim Stephenson, where she taught English. In 1971 she brought her family back to London where she continued to write, including the 1980 bestselling children’s book, The Indian in the Cupboard.
In 2013 Lynne won the prestigious J.M. Barrie Award ‘in recognition of a lifetime’s achievement in delighting children’.
We at Sapere Books were honoured to be chosen to reissue some of Lynne’s backlist over the past five years.
Lynne Reid Banks (31 July 1929 — 4 April 2024)
