Joan Lingard

Joan Lingard was a Scottish writer. Lingard was born in Edinburgh, Scotland) but spent many years living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Lingard wrote novels for both adults and children. She is known for the young adults aimed Kevin and Sadie series, which have sold over one million copies and had been translated into several languages as of 2010.

Her first novel Liam’s Daughter was an adult-orientated novel published in 1963. Her first children’s novel was The Twelfth Day of July (the first of the five Kevin and Sadie books) in 1970.

Lingard received the Buxtehuder Bulle award in 1986 for Across the Barricades. Tug of War has also received great success: shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1989, The Federation of Children’s Book Group Award 1989, runner-up in the Lancashire Children’s Book Club of the year 1990 and shortlisted for the Sheffield Book Award. In 1998, her book Tom and the Tree House won the Scottish Arts Council Children’s Book Award. Her last novel, Trouble on Cable Street was published.