Lynne Reid Banks – författare

A medieval tragedy and tale of retribution – The Dungeon is a powerful story from a writer of great skill and potency.The setting is medieval Scotland, a land dominated by skirmishes and battles on the borders, a land of fortresses and castles in Scotland, England and Wales. We meet Bruce McLennan, a Scottish laird, a man sorely-changed by a terrible family tragedy. He is a domineering master, an uncaring landlord, a cruel man, who has his heart set on building himself a castle and a Dungeon in which to punish his enemies in the future. But while the dungeon is being built, McLennan plans a trip to the far ends of the earth.As we follow McLennan on his travels to China and beyond, we witness his buying of Peony, or Mudan, as her Chinese name is, a young girl who McLennan uses as a slave. He is uncaring, unsympathetic, as he drags her after him across the world. Gradually, knowing no other, Peony develops a kind of affection for her master.In Scotland, Peony meets Fin, a stable lad and a loving friendship develops between them. McLennan, busy fighting off enemies, uses Peony in an horrific scene in one of his battles; he looses badly and subsequently blames her. He decides to punish her by throwing her in his dungeon… then unfolds a ghastly scene where Peony kills herself, at last in control of her own destiny. McLennan dies of guilt, shame and remorse. Fin lives on, and even Peony, perhaps, in his new baby sister.

Nine-year-old Alice must write about herself for a school assignment, and in doing so, she sorts out her feelings about her somewhat prickly single mother, the father she has never met, her flamboyant paternal grandmother and the rest of her sometimes confusing life.Alice doesn’t see how she can write her life story as a class assignment.. How can she fit nine years into a couple of pages? Her pets have died and the only family she has is her mother. Until recently she had a beloved interfering grandmother – Gene – but she’s gone from Alice’s life. Besides, Alice discovered ages ago she was born by accident, and that’s the sort of private thing you don’t write about for school. Alice does the assignment but she thinks it’s boring, until she discovers a need to write about her true life – the exciting, complicated and private of her life. She writes how Gene came along, how she changed Alice’s life, making it richer in experience but also more complicated. She records ongoing quarrels between Gene and her mother which ended with the Big Row and now she can’t see Gene any more.Lynne Reid Banks has written a truly compelling story of a creative child caught in the middle of a difficult but very real and increasingly common situation.

Omri has never forgotten Little Bull though, and finally yields to the temptation to see his tiny blood brother again.But when the cupboard door opens, Little Bull is slumped, unconscious, over his horse, two bullet wounds in his back. As Omri tries to help him, he faces the terrifying responsibility of power, the power of life and death…

Who would believe that a plastic toy American Indian and a plastic toy cowboy can come to life? When Omri’s friend Patrick goes back in time to the Wild West, keeping the secret safe becomes even more difficult for Omri…

What will Omri find inside the eaves of his new home? Will there be more little figures that come to life?After Omri reads his great-great-great-aunt’s account, he longs to try the key. And when his friend Patrick comes to stay, nothing can stop him…

The fifth title in this gripping series about Omri and his plastic North American Indian – Little Bull – who comes alive when Omri puts him in a cupboardOmri and his father travel back in time to find Little Bull and his people in deep trouble, torn between staying in the West and facing extinction or starting a long trek to a new life in Canada. Omri’s final parting with Little Bull is incredibly moving yet the book is also very funny.We meet other favourite characters as well as some new ones and there are wonderful descriptive passages about Little Bull’s longhouse and the Iroquois lifestyle. Even though this seems like the end of the story, Lynne does have ideas for a sequel.

Harry the Poisonous Centipede is now quite brave, but nothing can prepare him for this next adventure! He and best friend George are lost in a new and even scarier no-top world. Far from home, across the no-end puddle, they must negotiate a strange treeless cold desert, a Nest of Hoo-Mins, lots of noise-hurt and terrifying hairy-yowlers!Harry woke up first. The straight-up-hard thing was jiggling. It was moving.“What’s happening?” asked George in alarm.“I don’t know. We’re moving.” Harry replied.“Where are we? We’re not where we were last night!” crackled George.“I told you! This is a can’t -get-out!”Harry and George face the toughest adventure yet when they are shipped West in a crate of bananas. Far across the no-end puddle, miles away from home, they must find a way to survive the bitter cold and hide from the hundreds of Hoo-Mins do-diddling around them. They run away as fast as they can, but inadvertently squirm into a Hoo-Min Nest and come face to face with a hairy-yowler!All Harry wants is to go home to his mother, and tell her how much he warm-hearts her before her time comes to “stop”. But before they can even start the perilous journey home, they must escape the Nest and go out into the no-top world. Yet this particular Hoo-Min is fascinated by insects, and wants nothing more than to add some poisonous centipedes to his collection…

What will Omri find inside the eaves of his new home? Will there be more little figures that come to life?After Omri reads his great-great-great-aunt’s account, he longs to try the key. And when his friend Patrick comes to stay, nothing can stop him…

The Indian in the Cupboard is the first of five gripping books about Omri and his plastic North American Indian – Little Bull – who comes alive when Omri puts him in a cupboard.For Omri, it is a dream come true when the plastic American Indian he locks into the old cupboard comes to life. Little Bull is everything an Indian brave should be – proud, fearless and defiant.But being in charge of a real, live, human being is a heavy responsibility, as Omri soon discovers. And when his best friend, Patrick, is let in on the secret, he soon realises that life-changing decisions lie ahead.

Houdini is no ordinary hamster. He is an escapologist with an exceptional talent for getting out of cages and urge to escape leads him to all kinds of adventures…New edition published into the First Modern Classics list, fantastic stories for young readers.He may look like a small, furry pet, but really he is a Wild Creature – a freedom-loving hamster with a life-long passion for escape and a yearning for the Great Outside, leaving chaos and destruction as he goes.He tells his hilarious adventures with great intelligence and no modesty – for the world beyond carpets and floorboards can be a terrifying place…

Two tigers. One city. Two very different lives. A compelling story about friendship, brotherhood and battling against the odds. In Ancient Rome Caesar is almighty and his power is played out in the gladiatorial arena, where animals and men are baited, challenged and destroyed.Two tiger cubs have been kidnapped from the jungle. One is tamed and de-clawed for pampered life as an exotic pet for Aurelia, Caesar's daughter, but the other is cruelly caged and made even more brutal, trained to fight and kill.Princess Aurelia loves her pet tiger, Boots, and grows ever more fond of his keeper, Julius. But when a childish prank goes awry, Boots escapes. Furious Caesar sentences Julius to death in the arena… and Boots is to face the same fate.So the two tigers are reunited in the gladiatorial ring, one a cosseted pet, the other a vicious predator. In a world dominated by Caesar's will, all must fight for freedom.

Winner of the Smarties Silver medal, and best-selling title, Harry the Poisonous Centipede is the delightfully squirmy story of a little centipede’s adventures in the scary world of the dreaded Hoo-Mins!“It’s a Hoo-Min!” crackled George. “Walking on its hairy-biter feet!”But now it was Harry who felt brave. “Come on! Let’s peep at it!”They crawled the rest of the way up the tunnel towards the light.Harry is a poisonous centipede but he’s not very brave. Still, he is the star of this seriously squirmy story. Harry likes to eat things that wriggle and crackle, and things that are juicy and munchy! But there are some things that a poisonous centipede must never try to eat – dangerous things like flying swoopers, belly wrigglers, furry biters and the most dangerous of all… Hoo-Mins!Harry and George’s adventures up to the world of Hoo-Mins sparkle with fun and will be a delightfully squirmy experience for all young readers.

Another deliciously squirmy story about Harry the Poisonous Centipede, with all of Lynne Reid Banks’s usual charm and humour. Tony Ross’s wonderful illustrations perfectly capture the small world of Harry.‘Suddenly the most awful thing happened. Something tightened around Harry’s middle! He almost jumped into the air with fright…’When Harry the poisonous centipede’s best friend, George, goes missing, Harry goes to find him. But dangerous things lurk outside his nest-tunnel, like flying swoopers, belly crawlers, furry biters and – most terrifying of all – Hoo-Mins!

'Lynne Reid Banks' compassionate first novel examines the stigma of unmarried motherhood in pre-pill, pre-Abortion Act Britain... While the social climate has changed drastically since publication, a transgressive frisson still crackles from the pages'The GuardianPregnant by accident, kicked out of home by her father, 27-year-old Jane Graham goes to ground in the sort of place she feels she deserves - a bug-ridden boarding-house attic in Fulham. She thinks she wants to hide from the world, but finds out that even at the bottom of the heap, friends and love can still be found, and self-respect is still worth fighting for.

Jane has had her baby and is living along with him in a country cottage. Her idyllic time there is soon complicated by the arrival of Toby, the love of her life, and her friend Dorothy. The two women start up a shop in the village, and it is their changing fortunes and feelings for the men on whom so much of their lives are staked which form the core of this funny and vivdly-told novel. The Backward Shadow is a worthy sequel to The L-Shaped Room

Jane's son David is eight years old and Jane is filled with doubts as he grows up without a father. Toby, her first love, has gone to Israel after the collapse of his marriage to Melissa. Then there is Andy, close at hand, a complex personality with his own problem son. In the background is Terry, David's father, an amorphous shadow hanging over them.This intense, compassionate novel completes the the trilogy which began with The L-Shaped Room,

From a multi-million-copy-selling author whose work spans seven decades comes a humorous and warm-hearted story about a family of dragons in a world where humans have always been a myth ... until now.Red is a rare red dragon who lives with his Mag and Dag in a world where dragons and Uprights are sworn enemies. Then Red meets his first Upright, a girl called Lou, who is nothing like he had imagined: she's smart, and funny ... and kind! As the pair become friends, Red learns that not only can the two species live in harmony – but maybe it's his destiny to bring them back together.