Anne Fine

Anne Fine (1947- ), English writer of books for children, teenagers, and adults. She was born in Leicester and educated at Northampton High School for Girls. Having studied history and politics at the University of Warwick, she worked as an information officer for Oxfam and a secondary school teacher. She began writing while at home following the birth of her first child and was runner-up in a Guardian-sponsored competition for new writers in 1975, leading to the publication of her debut novel, The Summer House Loon, for teenagers in 1978. Among her best-known books aimed at older children are Madame Doubtfire (1987), made into a Hollywood film starring Robin Williams in 1994, and Goggle-Eyes (1989), winner of the Carnegie Medal, both dealing with the effects of parental separation on children, and Flour Babies (1992), in which a group of schoolboys nurse bags of flour to learn about the responsibilities of parenthood. The latter also won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award. Fine’s books for teenagers often embrace difficult subjects such as juvenile criminality (The Tulip Touch, 1996; also Whitbread Children's Book of the Year) and teenage suicide (Up on Cloud Nine, 2002).

Her other books include The Diary of a Killer Cat (1994), for younger children; and for pre-teens, Bill's New Frock (1989), How to Write Really Badly (1996), and Charm School (1999). She has also written novels for adults: The Killjoy (1986), Taking the Devil's Advice (1990), In Cold Domain (1994), Telling Liddy (1998), and All Bones and Lies (2001); and collated three volumes of classic children’s poetry, A Shame to Miss (2002). She was the second Children’s Laureate (2001-2003), during which time she initiated the Home Library project, a Web site to encourage reading among children. She was made an OBE in 2003.