ANNE FINE
This is the official web site of Anne Fine, the second Children's Laureate and a distinguished prize-winning writer for children of all ages, with over fifty books to her credit. She has also written for adults to considerable critical acclaim. This site has news and information about Anne, and showcases her books.
On The Wall
Can you find happiness anywhere? Anywhere at all?
Amid the frantic bustle of breaktime, Finley Tandy sits peacefully on the wall.
Mr Goodhew, watching from the staffroom, can't help but wonder at the boy's gift for stillness, and his seemingly cast-iron happiness.
But maybe tranquility can be catching. Because gradually everyone in the school comes to appreciate what Finley's long silences can offer. Even Juliet finds answers to her crushing worries when she's close to Finley, up on the wall.
" ... a refreshing and delightful read and would be a wonderful book for any child about to embark on their secondary school journey."
LoveReadong4Kids
September 2024 Book of the Month
Anne says this about her new book:
I'm fascinated by how many children seem to be comfortable in frenzies of activity or living behind walls of noise. I'm not like that at all. In the schools I attended all those years ago, the actual lessons were kept pretty controlled and quiet. I've frequently wondered how the shy, the anxious, or the merely self-contained still manage, even thrive, in today's often much livelier surroundings.
But over the last few years, I've watched a child whose family I know well as he's moved up through school, steadily, calmly, - a still centre of peace in all the vortexes of chaos round him. Authors are famously nosy about how people tick, and my fascination grew and grew - how does he do it?
So I invented Finley, embarking on his first year at Windfields. Schooling's been difficult for so many young ones since the Covid epidemic and the move from primary to secondary can be a particularly demanding time. I've had great fun choosing a 'home class' bursting with individual characters whose personalities mesh or conflict, endlessly and interestingly - and I hope amusingly - refracting on one another.
And in the middle of all this, baffling and intriguing both his teachers and his classmates, Finley sits, invariably peacefully, on his favourite wall. I hope my young readers will find the mysterious and unpredictable effects he has on those around him - from the bounciest to the shyest and least confident - as enlightening as they do.
It's the book I wish I'd written in time for both my daughters' moves to new schools. But I hope anyone interested in what goes on the maelstrom of the average classroom will find it intriguing and enlightening - as well as a good laugh.
Read all about On The Wall here.
Where did the idea come from...?
For some time now," says Anne, "I've been writing a book that's taken a good deal of thought. So it's been lovely to break off and write one of the short, straightforward comedies designed for somewhat reluctant readers, or those who still find some books pitched at their age group a bit too complicated.
"Where did the idea come from? One of the things that amused me most, growing up, is how my best friend's grandparents both saw the world so very differently. Ask Imogen's Granny how her day had been, and you'd get something along the lines of, 'Oh, it's been wonderful. I had the most glorious walk with the dog. The trees were bursting with blossoms. I came home feeling a million dollars!'
"Ask her Grandpa, and out would come, 'Ghastly day! I don't believe it stopped raining from dawn till dusk. Positively biblical. Needed boots and a sou'wester just to get as far as the wood shed.'
"You can write that sort of mystery out a thousand ways.
"So I chose one, and, hey presto!, we get He Says... She says ...
It could be Worse
Mum and Dad are off on a trip, so Jamie has to stay with Granny for the night.
But he's never stayed away by himself before. His imagination runs wild! What are those strange noises, and silver lights?.
Anne says: "I still remember my first ever night away from home. I was terrified. Maybe because I have so many sisters, I was't used to trying to sleep alone in a strange place - my grandparents' guest room. The house was too quiet. The room smelt strange. The sheets felt different. Odd shadows lurked. Worst of all, weird slinky silver lights kept snaking silently up one wall, running across the ceiling, and down the other wall. How was I to have guessed that it was car lights shining through the wide bay window?
"I'd guess that, for most children now, it's far more likely to be excitement than fear that keeps them from sleep. But Jamie's the anxious sort, and clings to the mantra he's casually been offered by his dad: 'It could be worse.'"
Could it be worse? How? Read more about It could be Worse to find out how Jamie gets on!
A novel for adults from Anne Fine
There can't be a parent in the land who couldn't cheerfully reel off a litany of the various misdeeds committed by their offspring. But what if those transgressions aren't so small? What if they sometimes appear to shade into real wickedness?
Marcia is an experienced child psychologist. But she has never come across a child like Tansy Devoy. The parental response to her probing isn't helpful. And in the desperate attempt to understand the roots of Tansy's behaviour, Marcia is forced to begin to think about one or two disturbing aspects of her own childhood.
So, forced by the system to make her professional recommendation for Tansy's future, Marcia is deeply rattled. By now she knows exactly how bad things could get if she calls this one wrong.
Anne says: Families have always been my stomping ground...
... but I don't tend to write much about those on the extremes. I suppose I usually find quite enough interest and tension in the day to day life of essentially well-functioning homes. I've tackled families in real crisis only twice in books for older children: in The Tulip Touch, and in Blood Family. But even then, the off-the-wall behaviour of both protagonists was quite understandable, given the pressures of their childhoods.
This is a different sort of story entirely, and there is a reason why it is a novel for adults, not young people. I think it's realistic. But I have put together what has become, in Tansy's family, a truly toxic mix of a child hair-triggered to get attention any way she can, and two parents determined to keep their heads well buried in the sand. In this book, then, I am more interested in parenting than in childhood.
I know where I stand on the matter. Read it, and see what you think.
All about Tansy Devoy - A Case Study.
Back to School
Anne is always amazed at the efforts to which some teachers go to encourage more and more - and wider - reading. But Stuart Wise, of the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone has outshone them all.
Now he has sent pictures of the result, and Anne is delighted with them. She says:
Anne says Look at this quite extraordinarily striking mural. Stunning!
It seems that Mr Wise has been designing murals for years along the school walls, and earlier this year he asked me if I'd mind being the subject of one of his displays. Mind? I couldn't wait to agree.
He's put me opposite Anthony Horowitz and between Cressida Cowell and Charles Dickens in the English corridor. Could I be prouder?
It seems any student coming to English, Film Studies or the School Library will see the displays every day. I don't see how anyone passing can resist the books they feature. I'm off to reread Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities right now.
