Fact File
Catherine
and Laurence Anholt
are
one of the world's leading writer and illustrator teams. They live and
work from their home in Lyme Regis, South West England.
Number
of books
70
children's titles in print.
Number
of languages
Around
20 languages world-wide, including Cantonese, Hebrew, Icelandic, Irish
language and Welsh!
Awards
Recent
book awards include:
Nestlé Smarties Gold Award
Kids’ Club Network Award (over-all winner)
Right Start Toy and Book Award (Three titles)
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award Winners (twice)
The English Association Four to Eleven Awards (Two titles)
US Children’s Media Award
CCBC Choices 2001 (two titles)
Recent
shortlisted titles include:
Federation of Children’s Book Awards (Three titles)
Sainsbury’s Baby Book Award
Experian Big 3 Book Prize
Nottinghamshire Children’s Book Award
Smithsonian Institute (Highly Recommended)
Sheffield Children’s Book Award
This is complicated! Laurence writes all their books and Catherine has illustrated about half of them. However, Laurence writes for several other artists, (including Arthur Robins, Tony Ross, Martin Chatterton and Sheila Moxley). To make things even more confusing, Laurence also illustrates his own books, in particular the bestselling series about great artists published by Frances Lincoln.
The Anholts’ first books were about a small pig called Truffles, (now, sadly porked!) written in 1983 for their oldest daughter, Claire.
Catherine comes from an Irish family. Her dad was a potter and she was one of eight brothers and sisters. After a brief nursing career, she found her true vocation as an artist at Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall (where she also met Laurence), she went on to take a Masters Degree at the Royal College of Art in London. Catherine has the unusual quality of total childhood recall - right back to being swaddled in a hairy blanket as a baby! Her work is acclaimed as having a uniquely personal quality - "It is difficult to define the magic of particular books, but this positively shines and the light will not go out...obtain a copy. You will never regret it ." [Child Education]
Family life has always been the Anholts' biggest influence and they get many ideas from their three children, Claire and twins, Tom and Maddy who road-test every book.
Laurence has become a much sought after public speaker and makes appearances at many international conferences including the European Council of International Schools Conference, The UK's Northern Children's Book Festival, the Cheltenham Festival, the Edinburgh Festival and the Hay-on-Wye Festival. Recent activities have included a reception at Buckingham Palace and helping to judge the prestigious Nestlé Smarties Award (which he won last year). 2002 brings a book tour in Cyprus and Indonesia.
The Anholts' titles have featured on TV, Video and CD Rom; several titles are available in Braille editions. Laurence's Art Series, which includes 'Camille and the Sunflowers' is currently under option to be adapted as a major animation by the creators of 'The Snowman', this is now at pilot stage. Discussions are in progress about adapting the same series for the stage in America. An option has also been agreed with a UK animation company to produce a 23 part television series of the ‘Seriously Silly Stories’.
The Anholts actively support numerous literacy and reading organisations and are especially passionate about libraries. In 1998 they were commissioned by the UK Government to produce a booklet, Babies Love Books for the Bookstart scheme which is given free of charge to all new parents to encourage them to share books with their babies from as early an age as possible.
The Anholts live and work in a rambling farmhouse in the woods above the sea at Lyme Regis in Southwest England. Parts of the house date back to the 1700’s and it is reputedly haunted by an old lady who stirs a pot in the kitchen: “We’ve never seen her,” muses Laurence, “perhaps my cooking is keeping her away!”
Family. Garden. Playing with words, ideas and pictures. Wonderful letters from readers.
The Anholts are always busy with new projects, especially further ideas for Chimp and Zee, their first character-led stories. Laurence is working with Arthur Robins on a new Seriously Silly series for younger readers and has many exciting projects afoot with other illustrators. He is also continuing his Art Series and is currently researching a story about Monet.
e-mail: jan@anholt.co.uk
