Lingard, Joan (1932– )

Northern Irish writer of children's books. Her best known work is Across the Barricades (1972), which views Northern Ireland through teenage eyes. She often explores themes of religious and political inheritance and has also set her stories in Scottish, Russian, and Canadian settings.

Lingard was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, but grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the setting for her five books about the characters Kevin and Sadie: The Twelfth of July (1970), Across the Barricades (winner of the prestigious German Buxtehuder Bulle award in 1986), Into Exile (1973), A Proper Place (1975), and Hostages to Fortune (1976). Her novels Hands Off Our School, The Freedom Machine, Rags to Riches, and her four books about the character Maggie (The Clearance, The Resettling, The Pilgrimage, and The Reunion), written between 1981 and 1989, reflect the importance of the author's Scottish birthplace. Displacement, exile, and alienation are also frequent themes.

In Dark Shadows (1998) the author returned to her Northern Irish background where the theme of reconciliation between Catholic and Protestant families is explored.