Nina Bawden (1925-2012)

The Idle Woman

Nina Bawden lived in Islington from 1976 until her death in 2012. She was a novelist and Children’s book author, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. She was also the recipient of the Golden PEN Award, and the 1976 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Some of her writing drew on her life in Islington.

In 2002, Bawden was seriously injured in the Potters Bar train crash in which her husband was killed. Her memoir ‘Dear Austen’ outlines some of the grief she felt at losing her husband, also names Austen. Even though the shock from the accident stopped Bawden from leaving her home, she used her grief to motivate a public inquiry into the train crash and to campaign for greater regulation on train safety nationwide.

Bawden’s books are highly acclaimed, and her strength through her grief is an inspiration to us all.