Joan Lingard

(born 1932 - ) - Edinburgh

Joan Lingard

Joan Lingard is a name instantly recognisable to those interested in children’s books, although she also writes for adults. Her early novels have become classics of children’s fiction while this prolific author has read all over the country in schools, literary festivals, and at events.

Joan Lingard was born in Scotland but the family moved to Belfast when she was two. She lived there till she was eighteen. Her most famous books have been set in that city with Across the Barricades particularly well known, and for which she received the prestigious West German award, the Buxthuderbulle, in 1986.

Tug Of War has also enjoyed great success: shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1989, The Federation of Children's Book Group Award 1989, it was runner-up in the Lancashire Children's Book Club of the Year 1990 and shortlisted for the Sheffield Book Award.

Lingard comments that her work is often about displacement, of characters uprooting themselves, and facing up to new experiences. Her most recent work is After You've Gone (2007), a novel set in working-class Edinburgh in the 1920s.

She now lives in Edinburgh where she is married with three grown-up daughters.

  • Cover scan of After You've Gone
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    After You've Gone - Hardback
    Willa is a polite and respectable woman whose husband, a navy officer, is away on a year-long world cruise. Struggling to cope with the tedium and oppression of life without him, Willa's only escape is through the books she reads. Through regular visits to the library she meets a man with a mutual fascination, Richard Fitzwilliam.
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    Between Two Worlds - Paperback
    Astra and Hugo have come to Canada with their family to seek a new life after the end of the Second World War. But when their father collapses from a heart attack, it is the children who have to struggle to support the family.
  • Cover scan of The Eleventh Orphan
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    The Eleventh Orphan - Paperback
    Mr and Mrs Bigsby of the Pig and Whistle, Stoke Newington already look after ten children. When Constable O'Dowd brings her an 11th orphan he found on the streets, Ma Bigsby is reluctant to take her. But there's something about Elfie, it's the first day of a new century and Ma loves a mystery.
  • Cover scan of Encarnita's Journey
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    Encarnita's Journey - Paperback
    In 1920s Yegen, the arrival of British writer, Gerald Brenan, brings a new excitement to the village. But Gerald is not the only new arrival: in a dusty stable a child is born. Encarnita grows up learning many stories, but after the passing of 80 years and many miles, there is still one tale left to tell.
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    The Kiss - Paperback
    This is a touching story about relationships, families, love, and art explored through the lives and work of Rodin and his muse. During a school study trip to Paris, an Edinburgh-based art teacher becomes embroiled in an affair with one of his students.
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    Natasha's Will - Hardback
    Natasha's story is set against the background of the Russian Revolution as she and her family flee persecution. Her story is linked with the present as her heirs search for her will.
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    The Sign Of The Black Dagger - Paperback
    When Will & Lucy's dad disappears, their life changes for ever. They uncover a trail of secrets & lies - but hidden in a fireplace in their old Edinburgh house, there's a clue that might lead them to the truth. A journal that tells the story of another pair of twins, William & Louisa, who lived in their house 200 years before.

Bibliography

Novels

  • Liam's Daughter (Hodder 1963)
  • The Prevailing Wind (Hodder 1964)
  • The Tide Comes In (Hodder 1966)
  • The Headmaster (Hodder 1967)
  • A Sort of Freedom (Hodder 1968)
  • The Lord on Our Side (Hodder 1970)
  • The Second Flowering of Emily Mountjoy (Paul Harris 1979)
  • Greenyards (Hamish Hamilton 1981)
  • Sisters by Rite (Hamish Hamilton 1986)
  • Reasonable Doubts (Hamish Hamilton 1986)
  • The Women's House (Sinclair-Stevenson 1989)
  • After Colette (Sinclair-Stevenson 1993)
  • Dreams of Love and Modest Glory (Sinclair-Stevenson 1995)
  • The Kiss - 2002
  • Encarnita's Journey - 2005
  • After You've Gone - 2007

Children's Novels

  • The Twelfth Day of July (Hamish Hamilton 1970)
  • Frying As Usual (Hamish Hamilton 1971)
  • Across the Barricades (Hamish Hamilton 1972)
  • Into Exile (Hamish Hamilton 1973)
  • The Clearance (Hamish Hamilton 1973)
  • A Proper Place (Hamish Hamilton 1975)
  • The Resettling (Hamish Hamilton 1975)
  • Hostages to Fortune (Hamish Hamilton 1976)
  • The Pilgrimage (Hamish Hamilton 1976)
  • The Reunion (Hamish Hamilton 1977)
  • Snake Among the Sunflowers (Hamish Hamilton 1977)
  • The Gooseberry - 1978, re-issued as Odd Girl Out - 2000
  • The File on Fraulein Berg (Julia MacRae 1980)
  • Strangers in the House (Hamish Hamilton 1981)
  • The Winter Visitor (Hamish Hamilton 1983)
  • The Freedom Machine (Hamish Hamilton 1986)
  • The Guilty Party (Hamish Hamilton 1987)
  • Rags and Riches (Hamish Hamilton 1988)
  • Tug of War - 1989
  • Glad Rags (Hamish Hamilton 1990)
  • Between Two Worlds - 1991
  • Secrets and Surprises (MacMillan 1991)
  • Hands Off Our School (Hamish Hamilton 1992)
  • Night Fires (Hamish Hamilton 1993)
  • Clever Clive and Loopy Lucy (MacMillan 1993)
  • Slow Flo and Boomerang Bill (MacMillan 1994)
  • Sulky Suzy and Jittery Jack (MacMillan 1995)
  • Lizzie's Leaving (Hamish Hamilton 1995)
  • Dark Shadows (Hamish Hamilton 1998)
  • A Secret Place - 1998
  • Tom and the Tree House - 1998
  • The Egg Thieves - 1999
  • River Eyes - 2000
  • Natasha's Will - 2000
  • Me and My Shadow - 2001
  • Tortoise Trouble - 2002
  • Tell the Moon to Come Out - 2003
  • The Sign of the Black Dagger - 2005
  • Tilly and the Wild Goats
  • The 11th Orphan - 2008

Picture Books

  • Can You Find Sammy the Hamster? (Walker Books 1990), illustrated by Jan Lewis
  • Morag and the Lamb (Walker 1991), illustrated by Patricia Casey
  • The Same Only Different - 2000, Illustrated by Olwyn Whelan