''On the Run'' (also ''Three on the Run'') is a 1964 children's novel by British author
Nina Bawden
Nina Bawden CBE, FRSL, JP (19 January 1925 – 22 August 2012) was an English novelist and children's writer. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. She is one of very few who have both se ...
. It was also published as ''Three on the Run'' in the United States. It is an independent sequel to ''The House of Secrets''.
[Saturday review, book 48, 1965, p. 13]
Online
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Plot
When Ben's cousins, whom he lives with, are unwell, he is forced to spend the summer with his father and stepmother-to-be. They live in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and have little time to spend with Ben. So Ben decides to explore the gardens of the terrace houses in his street. He walks along the walls connecting all the houses until he comes to one covered in jagged glass. Ben then falls into the garden and meets Thomas, a young boy from Tiga, who is being kept in London, while his father, Chief Okapi, is exiled there. When Ben discovers a plot to kidnap
In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...
Thomas, he, Thomas and Lil (a friend of Thomas) decide to run away.
Bawden's comments on the book
Bawden said that the novel is set in London and in Herne Bay
Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local governmen ...
, ‘a seaside town on the coast of Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
’, where Bawden's parents lived.
Nina Bawden remarked she intended "to write about children actually escaping — even though temporarily – from the world of grownups".
Reviews
“Children's Literature Review” states that the book sometimes suffers “slightly through being too full of incident”
[Carolyn Riley, Gerald J. Senick, Anne Block: Children's Literature Review: Excerpts from Reviews, Criticism, & Commentary on Books for Children & Young People: 002, Gale Research., 1976, p. 9-14]
Books
* ''On the Run'', Faber and Faber, 2009,
References
1964 British novels
1964 children's books
British children's novels
Novels by Nina Bawden
Novels set in London
Novels set in Kent
Victor Gollancz Ltd books
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