Home > Facts > Authors Facts > Lynne Reid Banks Facts

Lynne Reid Banks Facts

Lynne Reid Banks Facts
Lynne Reid Banks is a British writer best known for her bestselling novel The Indian in the Cupboard. She was born on July 31st, 1929 in London, England, to James and Muriel Reid. Her mother took her to Canada during World War II to escape the Nazis and she spent five years in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. After the war she returned to London and completed her education. She became one of the first women in Britain to work as a television journalist. She moved to Israel in 1962 where she worked as a teacher. She married and had three sons. Much of her writing has been based on experiences and influences throughout her life.
Interesting Lynne Reid Banks Facts:
Lynne Reid Banks' first published novel was The L-Shaped Room. It was released in 1960 and met with outrage among some conservative audiences due to its subject matter, which included an unmarried, pregnant woman kicked out of her home by her father.
The L-Shaped Room was later adapted to film and met with critical acclaim.
While in Israel Lynne Reid Banks was inspired to write two books that would later be published: Letters to My Israeli Sons: The Story of Jewish Survival (1979), and Torn Country: An Oral History of the Israeli War of Independence (1982).
In 1971, after 9 years in Israel, Lynne and her husband Chaim Stephenson, a sculptor, and their children moved to London where she continued to write.
Lynne Reid Banks' children's novels include The Farthest-Away Mountain (1976), The Adventures of King Midas (1976), series The Indian in the Cupboard (1980 to 1998), The Fairy Rebel (1985), series Harry the Poisonous Centipede (1997 to 2006), I, Houdini: The Autobiography of a Self-Educated Hamster (1978), Angela and Diabola (1997), Alice-By-Accident (2000), Tiger, Tiger (2005), Bad Cat Good Cat (2011), Ella and Her Bad Yellow T-Shirt (2011), The Wrong-Coloured Dragon (2012), and Uprooted: A Canadian war story (2014).
Lynne Reid Banks has written several books for adults including An End to Running (1962), House of Hope (1962), Children at the Gate (1968), The Backward Shadow (1970), Two is Lonely (1974), Defy the Wilderness (1981), Casualties (1986), and Fair Exchange (1998), among other novels.
Picture book titles written by Lynne Reid Banks include The Spice Rack (2010) and Polly and Jake (2010).
There were several titles in the series The Indian in the Cupboard which was inspired by Lynne Reid Banks' experiences in Canada as a teen. The titles in the series include The Indian in the Cupboard (1980), The Return of the Indian (1985), The Secret of the Indian (1989), The Mystery of the Cupboard (1993), and The Key to the Indian (1998).
New York Times called The Indian in the Cupboard "the best novel of the year".
The Indian in the Cupboard was adapted into film in 1995.
The Indian in the Cupboard has sold more than 10 million copies since it was first published.
Lynne Reid Banks was given the J.M. Barrie award in 2013 for her outstanding contribution in children's arts.


Related Links:
Facts
Authors Facts
Animals Facts
Literature
Literature Summary
Literature Quizzes