The Kevin and Sadie series is a 1970s set of young adult novels by Scottish novelist Joan Lingard. The books, set in Northern Ireland and England against the backdrop of the Northern Ireland conflict, deal with a young couple; Sadie Jackson, who is from the Ulster Protestant community, and Kevin McCoy, who is from the Irish Catholic community. This couple finds love despite the various physical and psychological barriers in their society.
Lingard decided to write the first book prior to the eruption of violence in Northern Ireland in late 1969 after hearing a Protestant family friend tell a joke that she deemed to be sectarian. [1] Despite concern from her literary agent that publishers would reject the material on account of its coverage of political and religious strife, the manuscript for the first book, The Twelfth Day of July, attracted interest from Penguin Books and was published in 1970 to a mixture of positive reviews and disapproval of the book's subject matter. [1] The book dealt with the beginning of the romance between the main characters at the beginning of The Troubles. [2] The book was Lingard's first novel aimed at younger readers and her first commercial success. [3]
The sequel, Across the Barricades, sees the couple reunite 3 years later. [4]
The remaining books deal with the couple's developing romance, despite disapproval from their families, and their eventual move to England and secret marriage. [3] Lingard considered writing a sixth book, in which the couple returned to a post-conflict Belfast, but judged that divisions in the city still existed. [1]
As of July 2010, the books had sold 1.3 million copies worldwide and had been translated into several languages. [1]
Judith Blume is an American writer of children's, young adult, and adult fiction. Blume began writing in 1959 and has published more than 26 novels. Among her best-known works are Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (1970), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972), Deenie (1973), and Blubber (1974). Blume's books have significantly contributed to children's and young adult literature. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
A romance novel or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primary focuses on the relationship and romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed to the development of this genre include Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë.
Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as friendship, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. Stories that focus on the challenges of youth may be further categorized as social or coming-of-age novels.
Nora Roberts is an American author of over 225 romance novels. She writes as J. D. Robb, Jill March, and Sarah Hardesty.
The Twelfth is a primarily Ulster Protestant celebration held on 12 July. It began in the late 18th century in Ulster. It celebrates the Glorious Revolution (1688) and victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690), which ensured a Whig political party and Anglican Ascendancy in Ireland and the passing of the Penal Laws to disenfranchise and persecute the nation's Catholic majority, and to a lesser extent Protestant Dissenters, until Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
The Battle of the Bogside was a large three-day riot that took place from 12 to 14 August 1969 in Derry, Northern Ireland. Thousands of Catholic/Irish nationalist residents of the Bogside district, organised under the Derry Citizens' Defence Association, clashed with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and loyalists. It sparked widespread violence elsewhere in Northern Ireland, led to the deployment of British troops, and is often seen as the beginning of the thirty-year conflict known as the Troubles.
Nicholas Laird is a Northern Irish novelist and poet.
Joan Lingard MBE was a Scottish writer. Lingard was born in Edinburgh, Scotland,) but spent many years living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Marijane Agnes Meaker was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novels on that theme in the 1950s.
Maurice Henry Leitch MBE was a Northern Irish author. Leitch's work included novels, short stories, dramas, screenplays and radio and television documentaries. His first novel was The Liberty Lad, published in 1965. His second novel, Poor Lazarus was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1969, and Silver's City won the Whitbread Prize in 1981.
Events during the year 1986 in Northern Ireland.
Events during the year 1970 in Northern Ireland.
Eleanor Spence (1928–2008) was an Australian author of novels for young adults and older children. Her books explore a wide range of issues, including Australian history, religion, autism, bigotry, materialism and alienation. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2006 Australia Day Honours.
Young Romance is a romantic comic book series created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for the Crestwood Publications imprint Prize Comics in 1947. Generally considered the first romance comic, the series ran for 124 consecutive issues under Prize imprint, and a further 84 published by DC Comics after Crestwood stopped producing comics.
The city of Derry, Northern Ireland, was severely affected by the Troubles. The conflict is widely considered to have begun in the city, with many regarding the Battle of the Bogside in 1969 as the beginning of the Troubles. The Bloody Sunday incident of 1972 occurred in Derry, in the Bogside area.
Sadie may refer to:
Four Days in July is a 1984 television film by Mike Leigh. Set and filmed in Belfast, the film explores the Troubles by following the daily lives of two couples on either side of Northern Ireland's religious divide, both expecting their first children. The film's action unfolds over 10–13 July 1984; the two couples' children are both born on 12 July, the date of a Protestant celebration in Northern Ireland known as the Twelfth. Despite the politically charged setting, the film is uniquely uneventful, at least on the surface; Paul Clements writes that "It is hard to identify any full length work by Leigh in which less of consequence seems to happen." Broadcast only once, it was Leigh's last film for the BBC.
The Northern Ireland civil rights movement dates to the early 1960s, when a number of initiatives emerged in Northern Ireland which challenged the inequality and discrimination against ethnic Irish Catholics that was perpetrated by the Ulster Protestant establishment. The Campaign for Social Justice (CSJ) was founded by Conn McCluskey and his wife, Patricia. Conn was a doctor, and Patricia was a social worker who had worked in Glasgow for a period, and who had a background in housing activism. Both were involved in the Homeless Citizens League, an organisation founded after Catholic women occupied disused social housing. The HCL evolved into the CSJ, focusing on lobbying, research and publicising discrimination. The campaign for Derry University was another mid-1960s campaign.
Josi S. Kilpack is an American novelist. She has authored 26 books, including a 13 book culinary mystery series. She is the recipient of a Whitney Award from LDStorymakers, a guild for authors who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has been awarded the Best of State in fiction in the state of Utah.
Sadie is a feminine given name which originated as an English diminutive of the Hebrew name Sarah. It has long been used as an independent name.
