RACHEL ANDERSON
“A personal, original vision, a sidewaysness, a pungent tang of reality that is involving and impressive” - Philip Pullman
Rachel Anderson began writing, at 17, for The Observer. For the next 50 years, she’s continued to write, first for newspaper and radio journalism, later as novelist, then with fiction for children and young adult readers.
In 1992 she was awarded the Guardian Children’s Fiction prize for Paper Faces.
Her many short stories and novels often involve alienation, social injustices, rejection, loss of parents, mortality, though always approaching these, so-called, difficult subjects with her own gentle touch and poignant humour.
In 1980, with her husband David Bradby, and their children, she met and received into the family an abandoned boy with learning difficulties from a children's home in Southern England. From then on, Rachel's fictions increasingly featured mental handicap (as it was then known) as an acceptable, funny, agreeable, and essential part of all of our lives. Her skilful touch was recognised, in 1990, when she won the Medical Journalists’ Award.
For more information visit www.rachelanderson.co.uk
LATEST BOOK: ASYLUM
Sunday waited as he had been told, as the lorry rumbled off the ferry. It slowed at the roundabout. He jumped down from the axle and walked casually away. As he had been told. He had no luggage, only his precious book, tucked inside his vest. He was giddy from eight hours bobbing across the North Sea.
All he wanted was a country that was democratic and respectful of human life. All Rosa wanted was somewhere safe. Away from the bad things of the past. With perhaps a garden, even very small, with good earth to grow things.
What Sunday and Rosa got was Hawk Rise. Seventeen storeys of it. Condemned.
“Inventiveness and a sympathy for human difference” - Philip Pullman
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rachel Anderson has written over thirty books for children, the latest of which are listed here. Please refer to her website for the full bibliography. For New Readers 4-8: Hello Peanut, Hodder Toddlers, 2003. For Keen Readers 7-10: Hugo and the Long Red Arm, A & C Black, 2004. For 10-plus Readers: The Poacher’s Son, Oxford University Press, 1982. Several re-issues, the latest being by Barn Owl Books, 2006. Pizza on Saturday, Hodder Headline, 2004. For Young Adults 12-plus: The War Orphan, O. U. P., 1984. (New ed. 2001),
‘Moving Times’ Trilogy, Hodder Headline:- Bloom of Youth, 1999. (New ed. 2009.) Grandmother’s Footsteps, 1999. (New ed. 2009.) Stronger than Mountains, 2000. (New ed. 2009.) This Strange New Life, O. U. P., 2006. Red Moon, Hodder Headline, 2006. Special Needs: Big Ben, Mammoth, 1998. (1999: T.E.S./NASEN prize: highly commended). Re-issued with new illustrations by Jane Ray, Barn Owl Books, 2007.Joe’s Story, Barrington Stoke, 2001. Foreign Language Editions: The War Orphan. (1) German: Nennen wir ihn doch einfach Robert, Spectrum Verlag, 1986. Re-issued by Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1989.
(2) Danish: Min Bror er fra Vietnam, Sommer & Sørensen, 1987.
(3) Swedish: Krigsbarnet, Berghs Förlag AB, 1988. (4) Dutch: Kind van de oorlog, Infodok, 1988. (5) Mandarin Chinese: Sun Ya Publications, Hong Kong, 1992. Bloom of Youth. Danish: Blomstrende Ungdom, Gyldendal, 2000. Hello Peanut. Korean version: Doosan Dong-A corporation, 2004.
