Lynne Reid Banks

[CrossPurposes]

I was sad to read about her death recently. The L Shaped Room had a big impact on me and reread it several times. She had a varied life as her obits show.
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/9029209a-5fab-4711-a239-169376ef6f44?shareToken=dab1e0d724ae951d68dd2bd376af280c

I was really sad to read this too. Have you read any of her other books? I enjoyed the two sequels to The L Shaped Room, and One More River about a Canadian teenager moving to Israel.

I really loved The L Shaped Room and reread it often. Sad to hear of her death.

The L shaped room had a massive impact on me, must have read it 3 or 4 times as a teenager.

I did read the sequels though unsurprisingly they didn't quite have the same impact. I read The Indian in the Cupboard to my son.

Yeah, we were talking about this on the 50 booker thread. Amazing book but very dated now with homophobic and racist views. Although as I was discussing with my DD this morning, considering it was written when homosexuality was still illegal it probably was quite open minded for the time.

I’ve never read The L-shaped Room but I remember reading One More River in my early teens in the 80s and it making a deep impression on me.

Did anyone read my darling villain? About a relationship between a middle class girl and a working class boy?

Yes - he bought her earrings that meant she needed to have her ears pierced. Funny what you remember. I sent a copy of this book to my pen-pal in America because I loved it so much.

An End to Running is good, also Dark Quartet based on the life of the Bontes.

I read it, @Bigearringsbigsmile , and I absolutely loved it. The bit where he said, after the bike accident, “I kept thinking, if you were on the back” made me cry. Years later, my daughter read it and loved it.
Loved the L shaped room too.

If you haven't read them, the sequels to the L-Shaped Room are also excellent - The Backward Shadow and Two is Lonely. I've read and re-read all of them many times.

A beloved English teacher around 1976 gave me a list of books she thought I would enjoy and the L shaped room was one. I loved it. LRB seems to have led an interesting life.

I still remember reading the L shaped room many years ago. A really beautiful book. I think this has prompted me to re-read it.

The L shaped Room had a massive impact on me too. I can remember my Dad being very perturbed at me reading it, I was probably only 12/13 and it was the first ‘adult’ book I read.
It opened my eyes a fair bit and rereading it over the years I got different perspectives at different ages.
I have never reread My Darling Villain but remember loving it as a teenager.
I didn’t know she had died. Thanks OP for posting the obituary, what an interesting life.

Oh god, I adored My Darling Villain as a teenager. Probably started my obsession with bikers... And The L-Shaped Room was another one I read and reread.
Thanks.for posting OP, I hadn't seen that she had died.

The Indian in the Cupboard makes Hairy Potter look like the chip paper wrappings it really is.

I adored the L-Shaped Room when I read it as a young teen. My enduring memory is the catching of bed bugs with a bar of soap. I don’t recall the homophobia and racism but for sure it was rife when it was written. I’d probably view it very differently if I read it now.

What a shame she has died, I loved the L-Shaped Room trilogy (it was strange when they opened the shop with Henry), also My Darling Villain, I can quote chunks!

I was also fascinated by An End To Running.
LRB was great at characters and situations but also gives amazing insight into other times.

Any recommendations for other ones to read?

The Writing On The Wall! A girl of Polish origin goes on holiday to Amsterdam with her boyfriend who turns out to be dodgy. Her teen fiction is so good.
I also read Children At The Gate about adopting children in Israel (I think, don't remember it well).

Oh I hadn’t seen that she’d died. I had one of her kids’ books - The Fairy Rebel. It was about fairies but had quite dark themes eg the main human character is a woman experiencing infertility. I read it dozens of times.

I really enjoyed 'Casualties' but it doesn't seem to be very well known - about two Dutch children who have very different experiences of the war, and how their childhood experiences affect them as adults.

She was a cracking story teller.

I loved the L shaped room and it had a massive impact on me too. I haven't read it for years but when I did I was quite shocked by the racist and homophobic attitudes of the day.

I loved the L Shaped Room. I must have been 11/12 when I read it in the early 1970s and it was a shock to me to find out that anti-semitism was still a thing. I thought it had died out at the end of WW2. It was also a film that I don't think I ever saw so I've just rented it on Amazon Prime to watch later.

I also loved My Darling Villain. I was about the same age as the protagonist when it was published and strongly identified with her. I still reread it occasionally and I find her a bit too good to be true now. I also find all the class talk very dated but as a portrait of first love it's very evocative.

I can’t believe so many other people remember My Darling Villain! It’s been out of print for years and I’ve not come across anyone else who’s read it before. I got it via one of those bookclub things that you could buy through in schools and I’d never read anything like that for a British audience before, it was usually all American stuff for teens back then.