Anne Fine

Children's Laureate 2001-3

Born in the Midlands, Anne Fine studied politics and history at University before publishing her first children's book, The Summer House Loon, in 1978.

Since then she has written books for both children and adults. Among her books for younger children, Flour Babies, won a Carnegie Medal (1992) and the Whitbread Children's Book Award (1993), and Bill's New Frock won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Gold Award, 1990).

Her books for older children include: The Tulip Touch, winner of the Whitbread Children's Book Award (1996); Goggle-Eyes, which won another Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (both 1990), and was adapted for BBC Television; and Madame Doubtfire (filmed by Twentieth Century Fox as 'Mrs Doubtfire' starring Robin Williams).

Her books for adults include Killjoy (1986); Taking the Devil's Advice (1990); Telling Liddy (1998); and All Bones and Lies (2001).

Anne Fine is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in County Durham. She was awarded an OBE in 2003.

Visit Anne Fine's website

Anne's time as Children's Laureate

As Children's Laureate, Anne toured and campaigned to promote the importance of children's reading, and to raise the profile of libraries. .

She compiled three poetry anthologies (A Shame to Miss, volumes 1, 2 and 3) and launched the My Home Library scheme, encouraging children to build their own libraries at home and for which more than 100 artists and cartoonists provided over 150 original bookplate designs. An estimated 1.8 million downloads of the bookplates have taken place since the project's launch in 2002.