The Backward Shadow

The sequel to Lynne Reid Banks' groundbreaking novel of the 1960s, The L-Shaped Room

Characters so lively and believable they give the impression of wanting to jump right out of the page and run

Lynne Reid Banks is one of the most readable, delightfull and accomplished novelists writing today

Lynne Reid Banks was born in London in 1929 and was evacuated to the Canadian prairies during the war. On her return to England she studied at RADA and was an actress in the early 1950s; later she became one of the first two women reporters on British television. Her first book, The L-Shaped Room, was published in 1960 and was an instant and lasting best-seller. Lynne Reid Banks is also a best-selling author of books for children and young adults. Her classic children's novel, The Indian in the Cupboard, has sold over ten million copies worldwide. She lives in London.

Jane has had her baby and is living along with him in a country cottage. Her idyllic time there is soon complicated by the arrival of Toby, the love of her life, and her friend Dorothy. The two women start up a shop in the village, and it is their changing fortunes and feelings for the men on whom so much of their lives are staked which form the core of this funny and vivdly-told novel. 
 
The Backward Shadow is a worthy sequel to The L-Shaped Room

Two Is Lonely

The final volume in the L-Shaped Room trilogy

Lynne Reid Banks jouns the growing group of responsible writers who are ambitious enough to present life as they really see it - and as we, in fact, know that it really is

Jane's son David is eight years old and Jane is filled with doubts as he grows up without a father. Toby, her first love, has gone to Israel after the collapse of his marriage to Melissa. Then there is Andy, close at hand, a complex personality with his own problem son. In the background is Terry, David's father, an amorphous shadow hanging over them. 
 
 
This intense, compassionate novel completes the the trilogy which began with The L-Shaped Room,

The L-Shaped Room

Tender and compulsive, the bestselling novel which became a famous film

Jane's struggle to cope is a journey of self-discovery and independence...a wistful and haunting period piece

This was the first grown-up book I read apart from the dirty bits in The Carpet Baggers and every 14-year-old should be made to read it. It tackles the lot; loneliness, race, sex and growing up. I never read books twice but I feel like tracking this one down again.

Unflinching in its boarding-house detail, and strikingly modern in its fury at the "social conditioning" that made its heroine an outcast; it shocked and sold.

Written in pre-Pill days when motherhood really was a fate worse than death, the shame and tension in Reid Bank's ground-breaking novel may seem incomprehensible to today's sexually active youngsters

Lynne Reid Banks has written a number of books for children and young adults. Her children's books include The Adventures of King Midas; The Farthest-Away Mountain; Maura's Angel; The Indian in the Cupboard, recently made into a major Hollywood film; Return of the Indian; The Fairy Rebel; and The Magic Hare. Her books for teenagers include One More River, Sarah and After, My Darling Villain, The Writing on the Wall, Melusine: A Mystery and Broken Bridge. In addition, she has written two historical books about Israel: Letters to My Israeli Sons and Torn Country.

'Lynne Reid Banks' compassionate first novel examines the stigma of unmarried motherhood in pre-pill, pre-Abortion Act Britain... While the social climate has changed drastically since publication, a transgressive frisson still crackles from the pages' 
The Guardian 
 
Pregnant by accident, kicked out of home by her father, 27-year-old Jane Graham goes to ground in the sort of place she feels she deserves - a bug-ridden boarding-house attic in Fulham. She thinks she wants to hide from the world, but finds out that even at the bottom of the heap, friends and love can still be found, and self-respect is still worth fighting for.

Lynne Reid Banks

Tracy wasn't surprised that her dad disapproved of Kev, with his hair in spikes, his Dayglo socks and all the rest of his punk gear. But she liked the way he looked and enjoyed going round with him. Besides, she was determined to have a good time before she had to get some boring job and settle down, like her sister Mary. 
That was why the trip to Holland seemed such a great idea. Of course it was Kev who suggested it, and Tracy knew that her parents would never let her go off with Kev, just the two of them. On the other hand, if there was a whole bunch of them going, including her friend Karen and some of the others from school, Dad might - just might - say yes. 
As things turned out, persuading Dad to say yes was only the beginning of her troubles. In fact so much went wrong that it was hard, afterwards, to remember the good bits, and it wasn't until the whole awful business was over that Tracy realised she should have seen what was going on all along.

Writing On The Wall

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