The Warning Bell [Hardcover]

Lynne Reid Banks (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Banks ( The L-Shaped Room eloquently depicts Maggie Robertson, a woman encumbered by guilt and ambivalence because she shunned her father's repressive, antiquated beliefs. While living with her family in Scotland after WW II, Maggie decides she cannot be the subservient spinster her father envisions. Mr. Robertson rages when he learns that Maggie has enrolled in drama school, and at his instigation the teacher who aided her is fired. Although Maggie has talent, discouraging periods of unemployment plus persistent remorse cause her to marry a man she doesn't love and accompany him to Nigeria. Just as she could not give herself completely to acting, Maggie withholds uninhibited devotion from Matt, her son, whose loyalty belongs to the Ibo tribeswoman who nurtured him. Finally, Maggie and Matt return to London, where she must decide whether to prod the dormant instincts connecting her with "primitive sources of feeling and being," or be forever enslaved by propriety, indecisiveness and fear. Banks describes Maggie's arduous maturation with compassion and lyricism; insights into the vagaries of the acting profession add to the book's veracity.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Maggie Robertson's desire to escape her puritanical Scottish home and become a stage actress leads her to marriage and motherhood in Africa, alienation from her family, and a long struggle to regain her dream after divorce and more family conflicts and personal heartaches. The "warning bells" marked turning points in Maggie's life, but she often ignored them, and learned to have no regrets in her quest for personal and professional happiness and satisfaction. The author of The L-Shaped Room has written a compelling and lifelike novel that is certainly suitable for any public library collection. Virginia A. Doser, Saddleback Coll., Mission Viejo, Cal.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (January 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312000170
• ISBN-13: 978-0312000172
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,987,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lynne Reid Banks is a best-selling author for children and adults. Her classic children's novel 'The Indian in the Cupboard' has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. She was born in London in 1929 and worked as an actress, writer and TV news reporter. Lynne has written thirty books: her first, 'The L-Shaped Room', was published in 1960. She now lives in Dorset, where she continues to write. Lynne says that writing for children comes much more easily than writing for adults. Tony Ross was born in London in 1938. He has worked as an art director at an advertising agency, a graphic designer, a cartoonist, a teacher, a film maker and as a Senior Lecturer in Art at Manchester Polytechnic.