The L Shaped Room Lynne Reid Banks

- author: Lynne Reid Banks was born in London, July 1929 and was evacuated to Saskatchewan, Canada during World War ll. She was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, graduating in 1949 and was an actress for five years. She worked as a journalist and was the first woman reporter on British Television. In 1962 she emigrated to Israel, where she lived in a kibbutz, because she felt Jewish even though she was no Jew. The people asked her to teach their children English and so she did. In the meantime (in 1965) she got married to a sculptor and had three children, all boys, called Adiel, Gillon and Omri - Hebrew names. Lynne Reid Banks is the author of more than 30 books, including volumes of Jewish history. Now she resides in England, where she writes full-time and occasionally acts on radio. She has a homepage of her own (www. lynnereidbanks. com) where you can gather a lot of information about most of her books and about herself (she publishes a diary). She divides her stories in two categories: 1. books for younger readers such as The Indian in the Cupboard, The Return of the Indian and The Secret of the Indian, The Magic Hare, I, Hudini, The Fairy Rebel, Harry the Poisonous Centipede, King Midas, The Farthest Away Mountain, Angela and Diabola or Mauras Angel 2. books for older readers such as Melusine, One More River, Broken Bridge, Moses in Egypt, The Mystery of the Cupboard, The Key to the Indian or Letters to My Israeli Son The L-Shaped Room was Banks first novel and originally an adult-novel, but now its widely read by young adults. The book became a film (in 1962), the trilogy of the Indian too. Lynne Reid Banks got many prizes and a lot of honouring in the course of her literary career. But these facts dont satisfy her: her next book - Alice-by-Accident - will be out in June 2000 and at present shes going to try to do two short books for specialist publishers who bring out easy-reading books.

- criterion of length, component parts: The novel comprises about 270 pages, which are structured into 25 chapters. At the very beginning the author is introduced, but the book doesnt have an introduction to the story.

- sort of novel: The book cannot be classified as a simple romance or as a simple adventure novel because its a mixture of many kinds of novels. First of all its a psychological novel because the emotional life of the main character is described very exactly. The woman falls in love, thats why its a romance, too. She has to come to terms with the past and she has to cope with her new style of living - its an adventure novel.

In addition there are also political and sociological aspects.

- plot (summary): Jane Graham, a 20-year-old woman, works - away from home - as an actress in a theatre company against the will of her father. Because of a violent incident she leaves the group and the man she loves. After working as a waitress she becomes an ...