In 1998, Fine was one of five finalists for the writing award. The biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award conferred by the International Board on Books for Young People is the highest recognition available to a writer or illustrator of children's books. Just meeting a few children should make that obvious enough. But even some seemingly bright and observant adults are buying into it again There are girls of all sorts, with all interests, and boys of all sorts with all interests. She told UK newspaper The Guardian: 'You'd think this battle would have been won decades ago. In March 2014, Fine lent her support to the campaign Let Books Be Books, which aims to persuade publishers of children's books to stop labelling and promoting books as 'for boys' or 'for girls'. Her work has been translated into 45 languages. Her books for middle children include Bill's New Frock (Methuen, 1989) and How to Write Really Badly (1996). Goggle-Eyes (Hamish Hamilton, 1989) was adapted for television by Deborah Hall for the BBC. Her books for older children include Madame Doubtfire (1987), a satirical novel that Twentieth Century Fox filmed as Mrs. In September 2010, Fine told The Daily Telegraph’s Jessica Salter that this first book lay under her bed after being rejected by two publishers, adding “Five years later I unearthed it and entered it in a competition where I was runner-up, and it was finally published in 1978”. Clearly this was the right job for me, for I have never stopped writing for more than a few weeks since”. Unable to get to the library in a snowstorm to change my library books, in desperation I sat down and started to write a novel. Careerĭescribing the start of her writing career, Fine has written: “In 1971 my first daughter was born. She studied History and Politics at university, got married, and then her daughter Ione was born. The eldest of the sisters is Elizabeth Arnold who also writes books for children the three younger sisters were triplets. She has four sisters her father was an electrical engineer and she grew up in Fareham, Hampshire.

Goggle eyes by anne fine