|
 Anne
Fine OBE is one of the most popular and successful children's
writers in Britain today. She was also the Children's Laureate
between 2001 and 2003.
Anne was awarded an OBE in the Queen's birthday honours
list in 2003 for services to Literature. She has also won
a number of awards including the Carnegie Medal and the
Publishing News' Children's Author of the Year in 1990 and
1993.
She is probably most famous for her
book 'Madame Doubtfire', which was turned into a
full length feature film starring the famous Hollywood actor
Robin Williams as the lead character. This book deals with
the issue of parental separation and divorce.
Her other books include 'Up On Cloud Nine', 'Bad Dreams',
'Goggle-Eyes', 'Bill's New Frock' and 'Flour Babies'.
Anne was born in the Midlands and
was sent to school two years early, because her mother had
triplets! As Anne went to school so young she could read
from a very early age.
She went on to study history and
politics at university and then had various jobs including
teaching at a secondary school, working as a secretary and
a job for Oxfam as an information officer.
Anne wrote her first book when her
eldest daughter was a baby. She was trapped in her freezing
flat by a snowstorm and was unable to get to the library
to get a book to read so she started to write to cheer and
warm herself up.
The book was 'The Summer House
Loon', published in 1978, It was finished in weeks, and
was by far the fastest book Anne has ever written but initially
it was turned down by the publisher she sent it to.
She later entered the story into
a competition run by the Guardian newspaper. Although
the book didn't win the award it was a runner-up and at
the award ceremony Anne met an agent who eventually helped
her to publish her work.
Mostly, Anne writes comedy books.
She says that this is because her favourite books when she
was a child were comedies, Richmal Crompton's 'William'
books and Anthony Buckeridge's 'Jennings' books in particular.
Anne was also a great Enid Blyton fan. Not surprisingly
English was Anne's favourite subject at school.
Anne has now written over twenty-five
books, for all ages, even adult. She says that the books
she writes for readers of ten and up take her around a year
to write and her novels for adults take around two years
to write.
She doesn't use a word processor
(she says she's too quick tempered) and still works as she
always has: in absolute silence, hiding her work with her
arms from anyone who comes in the room. Anne writes with
a 2B pencil and rubs out constantly. She has a special sharpener
that catches the droppings for use on trains, but can do
nothing about the manky bits of rubber getting all over
the trays and tables!
Anne now lives in a stone house by
the side of a river in a tiny town in County Durham. She
has two daughters, two cats and a golden retriever dog.
Her advice to would-be writers is
to 'read, read, read. The practice for writing (whatever
teachers say!) is not writing, but reading. If you don't
have a library card (and not in the teapot on the mantelpiece)
you cannot be serious. Then as Philip Larkin says, write
the book you yourself would most lost like to read.'
Last updated July 2003
|
