Rachel Anderson

{{Infobox person

| image =

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| name = Rachel Anderson

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1943}}

| birth_place = Hampton Court, Surrey, England

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| death_date =

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| othername =

| occupation = Author and journalist

| known for = Children's books

| notable_works =

| awards = Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, 1991

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| parents = Verily Anderson and Captain Donald Clive Anderson

| spouse = {{marriage|David Bradby|1965| 2011|end=died}}

| children = 4

| relatives = Janie Hampton (sister)

| website = {{website|https://rachelanderson.co.uk/}}

}}

Rachel Anderson (born 1943) is an English journalist and author best known for her children's books. Her work often features the positive portrayal of characters with learning disabilities, and themes of social injustice and alienation.{{cite web|title=Rachel Anderson|url=http://www.thevineyagency.com/author_rachelanderson.html|publisher=The Viney Agency|accessdate=23 November 2012}} She was married for 45 years to the writer and translator David Bradby.[http://www.rachelanderson.co.uk/about/default.html Biography at Rachel Anderson official website.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130818060849/http://rachelanderson.co.uk/about/default.html |date=18 August 2013 }}Dan Rebellato, [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/mar/02/david-bradby-obituary "David Bradby obituary"], The Guardian, 2 March 2011. Her mother was the writer Verily Anderson.

For the novel Paper Faces, published by OUP in 1991, Anderson won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.

Biography

Born in 1943 in Hampton Court, Surrey,[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195146561.001.0001/acref-9780195146561-e-0101 "Anderson, Rachel"], Oxford Reference.[https://books.google.com/books?id=phhhHT64kIMC&dq=Anderson%2C+Rachel+International+Who%27s+Who+of+Authors+and+Writers+2004&pg=PA16 "Anderson, Rachel"], International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004, p. 16. Rachel Anderson is the second of the five children born to Verily Anderson and Captain Donald Anderson, her siblings including the author and health activist Janie Hampton.Janie Hampton, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/verily-anderson-writer-of-humorous-optimistic-childrens-books-and-memoirs-2041644.html "Verily Anderson: Writer of humorous, optimistic children's books and memoirs"] (obituary), The Independent, 3 August 2010.

Leaving school at the age of 16, Rachel Anderson initially became a journalist, working for BBC Radio, newspapers and women's magazines. For 10 years, she was children's book reviews editor for Good Housekeeping.[https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/rachel-anderson "Rachel Anderson"], British Council, Literature. Her first book – Pineapple, an adult novel – was published in 1965, in the same week that she and David Bradby were married. Her other books for adults are The Purple Heart Throbs: The Sub-Literature of Love (1974), Dream Lovers (1978), and For the Love of Sang (1990). She now writes mainly for a young readership.

Her 2011 novel for teenagers, Asylum, was published in the same week as her mother's final book that was being completed at the time of her death the previous year.Richard Batson, [https://www.edp24.co.uk/going-out/poignant-publishing-moment-for-northrepps-author-rachel-anderson-1-918839 "Poignant publishing moment for Northrepps author Rachel Anderson"], Eastern Daily Press, 13 June 2011.

Rachel Anderson has four children and "a range of grandchildren" and lives mainly in Cromer, Norfolk.[http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/author/890/Rachel-Anderson.html "Rachel Anderson - Author"], LoveReading4Kinds.

Works

=Children's and young adult books=

Moffatt's Road (1978)
Tim Walks (1985)
Jessy Runs Away (1988)
French Lessons (1988)
Tough as Old Boots (1988)
The Bus People (1989)
Julie and the Queen of Tonga (1990)
Best Friends (1991)
Treasures for Cousin Crystal (1992)
The Working Class (1993)
Jessy and the Long-short Dress (1993)
Black Water (1994)
The Doll's House (1995)
Princess Jazz and the Angels (1995)
Letters from Heaven (1996)
''Blackthorn, Whitethorn (1997)
Carly's Luck (1998)
Ollie and the Trainers (1999)
The Scavenger's Tale (2000)
The War Orphan (1984, 2000)
The Flight of the Emu (2001)
Joe's Story (2001)
Paper Faces (2002)
The Rattletrap Trip (2003)
Hello Peanut! (2003)
Hugo and the Long Red Arm (2004)
Pizza on Saturday (2004)
The Poacher's Son (2006)
Warlands (2006)
This Strange New Life (2006)
Red Moon (2006)
Big Ben (2007)
Asylum (2011)

The Little Angel Trilogy:

Little Angel Comes to Stay (1984)
Little Angel, Bonjour (1988)
Happy Christmas Little Angel (1991)

Moving Times' Trilogy:

Bloom of Youth (1999)
Grandmother's Footsteps (1999)
Stronger than Mountains (2000)

=Adult books=

Pineapple (Jonathan Cape, 1965)
Dream Lovers (1978)
For the Love of Sang (1990)

=Literary criticism=

The Purple Heart Throbs: The Sub-literature of Love (1974)

=Translations=

The Cat's Tale (1985)
Renard the Fox (1986) with D. Bradby
Wild Goose Chase (1986)
Little Lost Fox (1992)

Awards

1949: Tiny Tots Order of Merit (TTOM){{cite web|url=https://rachelanderson.co.uk/|title=Rachel Anderson|website=rachelanderson.co.uk}}
1992: Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for Paper Faces (one of two winners)
1990: Medical Journalists' Award

References

{{Reflist |30em |refs=

[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/12/guardianchildrensfictionprize2001.guardianchildrensfictionprize "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners"], The Guardian, 12 March 2001. Retrieved 7 April 2014.

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