The first time the children saw the Devil, he was sitting next to them in the second row of deckchairs in the bandstand. He was biting his nails.'So begins the horrifying story of a madman loose in a small seaside town - his prey the very young and the very old. Seen through the eyes of Hilary - a precocious, highly imaginative, lonely child - it is a chilling story about the perceptiveness of children, the blindness of parents and the allure of strangers. As the adults carry on with their own grown-up capers, Hilary is led further and further into the twilight world of one man's terrifyingly warped view of normal life. But will she have the sense to resist it?

'I am an outside child. That is what Plato Jones calls me.'Jane Tucker is thirteen years old when she discovers she has a half-brother and sister, a revelation which promises to bring both excitement and succour to her ordinary life.But obstacles lie in her path when, for unknown reasons, she is prevented from meeting them. Aided by her friend Plato, Jane tracks down her brother and sister to their home in the East End of London. There she finds still more surprises lie in store for her.Can Jane at last be part of a 'proper' family, or must she always remain the outside child?This is the story of a girl and her family and the secrets they keep from one another. Both funny and poignant, The Outside Child is a beautifully drawn study of adolescence from one of Britain's most skilled writers for children.

When Tom Harrington embarks on an affair with the beautiful and affectionate Emily Hunter, he has no idea how seriously his life will be affected. At first, it is a straightforward deception, requiring only the usual expected tasks of lying to their respective spouses and hiding their relationship from the public eye. Before a year is out, however, Tom and Emily's love has somehow become the epicenter of a quickly unraveling web of treachery, jealousy, intrigue, and even murder. As the facts become muddied and the casualties pile up, Tom tries to make sense of it all: his own responsibility and guilt; his mistress's secrets and her husband's slick exterior; his wife's desperation and confusion. But the more control he tries to take, the less he finds he has, and the situation spirals ever quicker. Change Here for Babylon is a gripping story of misplaced emotion and misguided action. It grabs the reader from the very start, racing along with...

Lucy's trouble is that the exercise of her ambition is trammelled by the letter, though not the spirit, of such contemporary morality as has been distilled to her. Quite intelligent and attractive enough to get on under her own steam, her desire to live in a manner she is not accustomed to and her fascinated preoccupation with the 'marvellous secret society' of rich and educated people, side-track her into some very false moves, such as her marriage with the unspeakable Jebb. With good writing, exact observation and easy invention, Nina Bawden provides a cool and humorous commentary on society as it was.

Johnnie was only the runt of the litter, a little peppermint pig. He'd cost Mother a shilling, but somehow his great naughtiness and cleverness kept Poll and Theo cheerful, even though it was one of the most difficult years of their lives.

Since nobody knows Alex's birthday (he was found abandoned, at the age of 5 months next to Cleopatra's Needle on the Embankment), he celebrates his finding day every year. On his eleventh finding day, Alex's gran takes him to visit old Mrs Angel, her neighbour, who gives him a photo of a girl in an old photograph frame. The girl in the photo, Mrs Angel's daughter who disappeared years ago, looks a bit like Alex. When Mrs Angel dies a few days later, it is discovered that she has left a fortune to Alex. Mrs Angel's nephew, her only relative and an extremely nasty man, is furious. Soon the local papers get hold of the story and Alex's family is pestered by reporters. Eventually Alex can't bear to see his mother so upset and, feeling it's all his fault, he runs away. After an adventures which becomes frightening, Alex is reunited and everything is sorted out.

On the Scottish island of Skua, friendship develops between the lonely and mysterious Perdita and a blind girl, Janey. Both possess a kind of second sight - Janey's is the ability to hear, feel and remember more than others, and Perdita's is the ominous legacy of her being a witch's daughter. When Janey's brother, Tom, starts investigating a cluster of mysterious events and suspicious characters, all three become entwined in an adventure of hidden jewels, desperate criminals and dangerous detection. Written in 1963, The Witch's Daughter showcases Nina Bawden's innate regard for the integrity of her young characters. As she has said: 'I like writing for children. It seems to me that most people underestimate their understanding and the strength of their feelings and in my books for them I try to put this right.' Hugely admired on publication by both reviewers and readers, it was described as 'thrilling' by the Times Literary Supplement.

Carrie's War by Nina Bawden is an unforgettable Second World War story.'I did a dreadful thing...or I feel that I did, and nothing can change it...'It is the Second World War and Carrie and Nick are evacuated from London to a small town in Wales, where they are placed with strict Mr Evans and his timid mouse of a sister.Their friend Albert is luckier, living in Druid's Bottom with Hepzibah Green who tells wonderful stories, and the strange Mister Johnny, who speaks a language all of his own. Carrie and Nick are happy to visit Albert there, until one day when Carrie does a terrible thing - the worst thing she ever did in her life...Based on her own childhood, Nina Bawden's enchanting story Carrie's War has delighted readers for almost 40 years.'Nina Bawden is without question one of the very best writers for children' Daily TelegraphPerfect for fans of...

Lonely and forlorn after their mother's death and their sudden arrival at Aunt Mabel's seaside boarding-house, John, Mary and Ben Mallory are unimpressed with their new life in England. But there are wonderful surprises in store for them when they discover a secret way into the grand and empty house next door. Soon all sorts of unexpected events will unfold as the siblings encounter a whole host of eccentric characters and happenings. Completed in 1963, The Secret Passage is Nina Bawden's first children's novel and was written especially for her own three children after they had discovered a secret passage in the cellar of their house. It beautifully reflects her own inquisitive nature - as she herself has said: 'I was a keyhole child, fearsomely curious' - wedded to her subtly innovative ability to empathise with the child's view.

Deeply unhappy at the recent divorce of her parents, Mary is sent away to live by the sea with her distant grandfather and the detestable Aunt Alice. Feeling abandoned, without even the company of her beloved pet cat Noakes, the summer looks set to become one long stretch of unendurable loneliness. But suddenly she is dragged, half unwittingly, into a situation that will force her to come to the aid of others more vulnerable than herself. So begins her runaway summer, as she sets about helping Simon, the son of a local policeman, and a young illegal immigrant boy arrived from Kenya, frightened and all alone.The Runaway Summer was first published in 1969 to typically universal acclaim. It is, in the words of the Times Educational Supplement, an 'unputdownable gem of a book. The tale is beautifully constructed in diamond-hard language.'

Catriona Natasha Brooke's granny is totally unlike other people's grandmothers. When she isn't dressed in motorbike leathers, Granny the Pag wears dirty black skirts that trail on the ground and fastens her old sweaters with an enormous black broochencrusted with diamonds. Even worse, she smokes! The Pag can be a social embarrassment, but when Catriona's relationship with her is threatened, Catriona fights for the right to choose where she lives and who with - she chooses Granny the Pag.