The Kevin and Sadie series

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.

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.

[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.