Joan Lingard: Kevin and Sadie author dies aged 90
- Published
The author died peacefully on Tuesday
Author Joan Lingard, who wrote the Kevin and Sadie series of books for young adults set in 1970s Northern Ireland, has died aged 90.
The series included her debut children's novel The Twelfth Day of July, published in 1970, and 1972's Across the Barricades.
Born in Edinburgh in 1932, the author moved to Belfast at the age of two, returning to Scotland aged 18.
In a career that spanned seven decades, she wrote almost 60 novels.
Ms Lingard died peacefully on Tuesday.
Writing on Ms Lingard's daughter Kersten England, said her mother was a "woman whose life and work touched so many lives including mine".
She added: "She taught me everything about standing up to prejudice and bigotry and tackling injustice. Most of all she was my Mum."
The Kevin and Sadie series, which has sold more than one million copies, is set in Troubles-era Northern Ireland and tells the story of two teenagers growing up on opposite sides of the sectarian divide.
Of her childhood growing up in Belfast, Ms Lingard had said that it was there "that I grew up, went to school, made my first friends, learned to read and write.
"Inevitably, then, Belfast and Northern Ireland have had a strong influence on my writing."
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Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children's said Ms Lingard was "an incredible writer who gave us some of the most important stories of her time".
"The Kevin and Sadie books are essential reading," she said.
"A love story set during the troubles in Northern Ireland, the emotions she shared, the situation she portrayed so vividly still resonate with young people today."
The author is survived by her husband Martin, her three daughters, Kersten, Bridget and Jenny, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.