Lynne Reid Banks Lynne Reid Banks Lynne Reid Banks (born 31 July 1929) is a British author of books for children and adults. She has written forty-five books, including the best-selling children's novel "The Indian in the Cupboard", which has sold over 10 million copies and has been successfully adapted to film. Her first novel, "The L-Shaped Room", published in 1960, was an instant and lasting best seller. It was later made into a movie of the same name and led to two sequels, "The Backward Shadow" and "Two is Lonely". Banks also wrote a biography of the Brontë family, entitled "Dark Quartet",
Thomas Mayne Reid to teach school. In December 1839 he boarded the "Dumfriesshire" bound for New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving in January 1840. Shortly afterward he found a job as a clerk for a corn factor, or trader in the corn market. He stayed in New Orleans for six months. It is said that he left his position for refusing to whip slaves. (Reid later used Louisiana as the setting of one of his best-selling books, an anti-slavery novel entitled "The Quadroon".) From New Orleans, Reid traveled to Tennessee. On a plantation near Nashville, he tutored the children of Dr. Peyton Robertson, who some