Press play to see the DVD trailer.
Anne sometimes visits schools, and if you want to see if she is able to come to yours, contact her agent, David Higham Associates (details below). But if your budget or Anne's busy schedule doesn't permit this, there's now an alternative: a DVD from ChildrensAuthors.tv.
When a primary school in Anne Fine’s home town is asked to provide three children to interview her, there’s a frenzy of reading and writing. Two weeks later Victoria, Jess and Edward arrive on Anne’s doorstep clutching a long list of questions. Anne’s warmth and enthusiasm soon relaxes them as they chat in her beautiful riverside garden about how she’d like to be an opera singer but can’t sing, why Round Behind the Icehouse is the special favourite of her books and how she ‘pinched’ Flour Babies from a newspaper article.
In her study Anne shows them the number of ‘messy’ drafts she writes before a book is ready for publication and reveals how her first and possibly happiest book On The Summerhouse Steps was created when she was marooned in a blizzard. They also discover that she hates shopping, loves reading in the bath and still writes with a pencil! Her whole house - library, bedrooms, even the staircase - is lined with books including Anne’s treasured childhood copies which she shows the children before asking them their favourites and discussing her time as Children’s Laureate and her special Home Library project.
Next day Anne pays the school a visit where a packed hall of eager pupils ask more questions and listen enthralled as she reads from Crummy Mummy & Me. That evening we join Anne walking Harvey the dog and telling us what she’d do if she were Prime Minister, the best advice for all budding writers, and how family and books are inextricably linked in her life.
Anne Fine: A Life of Books DVD costs £19.50 + £2.50 P&P. Order via the ChildrensAuthors.tv website.
Running time: 30 minutes, may be shown as two 15 minute segments.
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