Novelist. Born in the back of a taxi on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh while her mother was en route to hospital, Lingard was raised and educated in Northern Ireland, before returning to Edinburgh to train as a teacher at Moray House. The first of almost sixty books, Liam's Daughter, was published in 1963. Her 1964 novel, The Prevailing Wind, broke through the veneer of respectability behind which the Edinburgh middle-classes would hide from their emotions, while other favourite themes included the problems of family relationships, religion and social change. Edinburgh and Belfast became the setting for many of her novels, written not only for an adult audience but also for teenagers and children, including the bestselling Kevin and Sadie series, about a couple who find love across the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland. Books set in Edinburgh include The Kiss (2002) for adults and What to do about Holly (2009) for children, the latter is set partly in the Cairngorms, where Lingard and her husband maintained a holiday cottage. Her quartet The Clearance, The Resettling, The Pilgrimage and The Reunion told of the life of teenager Maggie McKinley in Glasgow. These were made into an 18-episode series Maggie broadcast on the BBC (1981-82), starring Kirsty Miller and Michael Sheard.
In 1998, Lingard was awarded an MBE for services to children's literature. She died in Edinburgh.
