Anthony Browne

Children's Laureate 2009 - 2011.

A firm favourite with children and adults alike, Anthony Browne has won many prizes for his work, including the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2000 for his services to children’s literature – the first British illustrator to win the prize since 1956. In his role as the Children’s Laureate from 2009-2011 he has inspired children of all ages to play the shape game! Anthony has written over 40 books and lives in Kent.

Anthony Browne as a child:

Anthony grew up in a village called Hipperholme, in Yorkshire. He loved art and would spend hours drawing with his beloved father. He says of his father, "He was an unusual man - outwardly strong and confident, but also shy and sensitive - a bit like the gorillas I love to illustrate now. As well as drawing, he encouraged me to play a lot of sports, such as rugby and soccer and cricket. I was small for my age and I used to go to a fairly tough school - if I hadn't been good at sports, I would probably have been bullied."

As an adult

After he left school, Anthony studied graphic design and then went on to paint the insides of people's bodies for medical textbooks. He found this fascinating, but after three years found that the work was becoming repetitive ("if you've seen one stomach operation, you've seen 'em all!") and instead began designing greetings cards. This in turn led him to illustrating children's books - his book Gorilla began life as a picture on a birthday card. Anthony lives in Kent and has two grown-up children.

As an artist

Gorillas feature in many of Anthony's books. He says, "I am fascinated by them and the contrast they represent - their huge strength and gentleness. They're thought of as being very fierce creatures and they're not." Anthony's illustrations also reveal his love of the Surrealist painters, whose pictures often depict strange, dreamlike scenes (look out for all the disguised bananas hidden in Anthony's books!). When Anthony first has an idea for a picture book, he says, "it's a strange combination of story and images. Deciding what will be illustrated on the pages of a book is like deciding on the scenes of a film." Anthony has won many prizes for his work, including the Kate Greenaway Medal (twice) and the Kurt Maschler Award (three times). In 2000, he received the highest international honour for illustration, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, for his services to children's literature - the first British illustrator to win the prize since 1956. On 9 June 2009 Anthony was announced as the sixth Children's Laureate, an appointment that recognises the importance of exceptional children's writing in creating the 'readers of tomorrow.' Speaking about this latest award, Anthony says, "I hope to encourage more children to discover and love reading, but I want to focus particularly on the appreciation of picture books.... Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older. The best ones leave a tantalising gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader's imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book."

Things you didn't know about Anthony Browne:

When he was a boy he wanted to be a journalist, a cartoonist, or a boxer.

He was once asked to present a programme on children's books, in a cage with some gorillas. But a gorilla bit him badly on the leg. It didn't put him off them, "but," he says "you wouldn't catch me going into a cage with one again!"

He grew up in a pub and when he was little, would go into the bar, stand on a table and tell stories about a character he'd made up called Big Dum Tackle.

He wore short trousers until he was fifteen.

He thinks the character, Willy, is based on his own childhood.

When he was a boy, he wanted a real trumpet for his birthday, but he got a toy plastic one instead. He says his book, Gorilla, was partly based on that experience.

He loves rugby and played as a scrum-half for eighteen years.

His book The Tunnel was inspired by a very frightening tunnel he and his brother used to go down when they were boys.

When he was a medical artist, he would often eat his lunch in the mortuary.

He says he has never found the perfect pair of swimming shorts!

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Featured Books, with extracts by Anthony Browne

How Do You Feel?
Anthony Browne
Former Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne’s characteristic and affecting illustrations are skilful in capturing simple emotions. Happy, sad, lonely, guilty, confident and shy – all these and more are eloquently expressed on the faces of Browne’s endearing chimpanzees.
Featured in: 3+ readers | Picture Book Picnic
Format: Hardback - Released: 03/11/2011
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Me and You
Anthony Browne
Shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2011 Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne gives a thought provoking new take on the traditional story of Goldilocks. Here, Goldilocks, who lives on a dark and dreary estate portrayed all in greys in Browne’s urban...
Featured in: 3+ readers | Book Awards | Ebooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/03/2011
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Play the Shape Game
Anthony Browne
Take a shape and transform it into something new...Top names, including Jo Brand, Quentin Blake, Jacqueline Wilson, Phillip Pullman, Imelda Staunton, Anthony Horowitz, Sir Peter Blake, Linford Christie and Andrew Motion, have played Anthony Browne's Shape Game and left a new shape...
Featured in: 5+ readers | 7+ readers | Books of the Month
Format: Paperback - Released: 26/07/2010
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Me and You
Anthony Browne
Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne gives a thought provoking new take on the traditional story of Goldilocks. Here, Goldilocks, who lives on a dark and dreary estate portrayed all in greys in Browne’s urban landscape breaks into the idealised, sunlit  ‘family’...
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers | Ebooks
Format: Hardback - Released: 29/04/2010
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Silly Billy
Anthony Browne
Shortlisted for the prestigious 2008 Greenway. A reassuring story about dealing with all kinds of worries. Billy can't stop worrying until his grandma gives him a set of worry dolls. Billy tells the dolls his worries and, at last, he...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/11/2007
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My Brother
Anthony Browne
Brothers have a special relationship and younger brothers looking up to and emulating their older siblings is beautifully explored in this warm, funny and affectionate celebration of brothers by one of the UK's foremost author/illustrators, Anthony Browne.
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 07/06/2007
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My Mum
Anthony Browne
Irresistible for all mums who’ll bask in the warm glow that comes from Anthony Browne’s loving celebration of the many wonderful things that mother’s do. With his familiar wit, Anthony Browne shows how women juggle the many things in their...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/02/2006
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King Kong
Anthony Browne
A picture book to share with those who might think they were beyond the picture book stage, Anthony Browne’s King Kong is a sumptuous book which gives an awesome visual version of the original King Kong film matched by a...
Featured in: 5+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/11/2005
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Gorilla
Anthony Browne
Greenaway winner in 1983. Wonderfully inventive story and almost tear-jerking at times but with a happy ending.  The illustrations are both detailed and colourful and children will delight in them. I’m sure for some parents it really touches a...
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/10/2002
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