Nina Bawden was a popular British novelist and children's writer. Her mother was a teacher and her father a marine.When World War II broke out she spent the school holidays at a farm in Shropshire along with her mother and her brothers, but lived in Aberdare, Wales, during term time.Bawden attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.Her novels include Carrie's War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch's Daughter. A number of her works have been dramatised by BBC Children's television, and many have been translated into various languages. In 2002 she was badly injured in the Potters Bar rail crash, and her husband Austen Kark was killed.Bawden passed away at her home in London on August 22, 2012.