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At the beginning of the Troubles, an author called Joan Lingard decided to write a series of novels for young people about a Catholic boy named Kevin and a Protestant girl called Sadie. Set initially in 1970s Belfast, the stories were some of the first written for young people about the conflict in Northern Ireland. Â鶹Éç Ireland Correspondent Chris Page first read them as a boy and they’ve stayed with him ever since. He hears from generations of readers in Northern Ireland about how the novels shaped their understanding of the place they were from.

He starts in Bangor, near where he grew up, with his friend Ann-Marie Foster who first read the novels in the 1970s. Lingard’s eldest daughter Kersten England tells him how Joan Lingard’s childhood inspired the novels and about how an unlikely visitor shaped their first pages. Writer Jan Carson sits down with Chris in front of Lingard’s manuscripts held at the Linen Hall Library in central Belfast to explore Lingard's continued influence on writers in Northern Ireland.

Chris follows in the footsteps of Kevin and Sadie, walking down the towpath by the River Lagan – a place where the characters retreat. He meets Dr Kevin de Ornellas, Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at Ulster University, to discuss Lingard’s use of Shakespearean stories. Dr Kevin talks to Chris about what he made of characterisation when he read the novels as a young boy.

For Chris, the novels also gave him the idea that young people could strike out for a better future. He explores how the five novels progress, visiting students at Integrated College Dungannon, who have studied Joan Lingard’s novels in class. They tell him what they think Kevin and Sadie would have made of Northern Ireland today.

Presenter: Chris Page
Reader: Aoife Moss
Producer: Camellia Sinclair
Studio Manager: Ilse Lademann

With material from:
Joan Lingard, The Twelfth of July, Hamish Hamilton, 1970
Joan Lingard, Across the Barricades, Hamish Hamilton, 1972
Joan Lingard, Into Exile, Hamish Hamilton, 1973
Joan Lingard, A Proper Place, Hamish Hamilton, 1975

Archive used:
Book Week NI, Â鶹Éç Radio Ulster, 27 October 2010; Across the Barricades, Â鶹Éç Radio Ulster, 8 November 1985; Children in Crossfire, Â鶹Éç TV, 12 March 1974; Treasure Islands, Â鶹Éç Radio 4, 11 December 1991; Stark Talk, Â鶹Éç Radio Scotland, 20 October 2011; The Usual Suspects: Joan Lingard, Â鶹Éç Radio Scotland, 1998; Kevin and Sadie, Â鶹Éç Radio Ulster, 11 July 2010