Nina Bawden Professions : Novelist Born : January 19, 1925 Died : August 22, 2012 Browse All Authors Top 31 quotes by Nina Bawden I wanted to be a war reporter - scrabbling around, exposing things. I didn't want to go to university, I wanted to get a job, but Auntie Beryl said I should go to Oxford. Nina Bawden oxford jobs war I've never found it made the slightest difference being a woman - though there is a sort of feeling that as you get older you're not so interesting. Nina Bawden differences feelings interesting There are many times when I think I would have rather died with my husband. It would have been pleasanter, simpler. But it would have been worse for the children and the family in general. Nina Bawden husband children thinking Ten thousand pounds is the legal value of a negligently taken life, of a child or a parent. A cold and somewhat mean-spirited calculation: you would do better if you slipped on a paving-stone and broke a front tooth. Nina Bawden taken mean children People who don't read seem to me mysterious. I don't know how they think or learn about other people. Novels are a very important part of our education. Nina Bawden important people thinking Children often have a much stronger concept of morality than adults. Nina Bawden stronger adults children A writer's work may be a coded autobiography, but only a very close friend could decipher it. Nina Bawden close-friends writing may I grew up on a suburban street with lace curtains and dull neighbours, so I made up stories to tell my friend, in which they became serial killers and burglars. She told her mother, who then told mine. Nina Bawden made-up-stories serial-killer mother The murder of my husband by the railways has altered the way I think about everything. I had always thought that the majority of people were decent and honourable. In the wake of the crash, what made me angry more than anything else was the realisation that this was not true. I still find it very hard to come to terms with. Nina Bawden me angry husband people At 11, I passed the scholarship - only just; I wasn't very good at maths - to Ilford County High for Girls. When the Second World War started we were evacuated, first of all to Ipswich, and then to Aberdare, Queen of the Valleys, in south Wales. Nina Bawden queen good war world The train we had so confidently boarded had been speeding at almost 100 miles an hour and it had derailed. Someone, I can't remember who, showed me a newspaper photograph of the carriage we had been sitting in tilted on its side on a station platform next to a large notice that said Welcome to Potters Bar. Nina Bawden me welcome sitting remember Similar Authors Adam Johnson novelist Ivan Goncharov novelist Binnie Kirshenbaum novelist Bruce Jay Friedman novelist Buchi Emecheta novelist Bryce Courtenay novelist All Authors