Anthony Browne Children's Laureate 2009
British Illustrator and Writer Awarded Highest Honour
Jun 15, 2009
One of Britain’s best loved writers and illustrators, Anthony Browne has been appointed Children’s Laureate for 2009-2010.
Children’s Laureate
The Children's Laureate program was established in Britain ten years ago by poet Ted Hughes and children's writer Michael Morpurgo. The appointment stands for two years, and the Laureate visits schools and festivals, and encourages a culture of reading and writing among children.
The first Laureate was illustrator Quentin Blake. He was followed by writers Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, and Michael Rosen.
Anthony Browne
Anthony Edward Tudor Browne was born in Yorkshire, on 11 September 1946. He studied graphic design at the Leeds College of Art. After graduating, he became a medical artist at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. This was to be invaluable training for children’s book illustration.
Learning to Illustrate Children’s Books
Being a medical artist required a precise attention to detail and skill in technical drawing. This can be seen in the illustrations of the primates that star in many of his books. He has a soft spot for gorillas, and they feature often, including the famous Gorilla (Julia MacRae 1983) King Kong (Julia MacRae 1994) and the Willy books. He ascribes his fondness of gorillas to their combination of massive strength and gentleness, attributes which remind him of his father, who died of a heart attack when Anthony was seventeen.
Designing Greeting Cards
Browne spent fifteen years designing Gordon Fraser greeting cards, an experience that developed his ability to capture emotions in his drawings. His skill in this area is legendary, particularly when it comes to the darker emotions like loneliness and sadness. It was while he was working for Gordon Fraser that he tried book publishing for the first time.
Publishing Books for Children
Browne was thirty when he published his first book for children, Through the Magic Mirror. However, he achieved his first real success with his picture book Gorilla in 1983. He most often uses watercolour, and his style combines a precise attention to detail with surreal, witty visual puns. He completes around two books a year, and has published over forty.
Awards for Children’s Books
Browne has won almost all the major awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal twice, in 1983 for Gorilla, and in 1992 for Zoo. He has received the Kurt Maschler Emil Award three times, for Gorilla, in 1983, for Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland in 1988, and ten years later for Voices in the Park. In 2000 he was awarded the highest international honour for illustrators, the Hans Christian Anderson Award.
Read about the writing process of another Children’s Laureate, Michael Morpurgo, who writes books of exceptional nuance and emotional intelligence.
 |
 |
 |
 |
