Author Wiki Assignment —Anthony Edward Browne

**Author Wiki Assignment —Anthony Edward Browne**

**Biographical information**

Anthony Edward Tudor Browneis a British writer and illustrator of children's books, primarily picture books, with fifty titles to his name. He was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, September 1946. As a young boy, he enjoyed art, and used to draw with his father. He also played rugby and cricket. His career ambition was then to be a journalist, a cartoonist, or a boxer. He studied graphic design at Leeds College of Art, where he graduated in 1967. When he finished school Browne intended to become a painter, but being short of money he took a job as a medical illustrator, producing detailed paintings of operations for Manchester Royal Infirmary. After three years he grew tired of the job's repetitiveness and moved on to design greeting cards for Gordon Fraser. He designed cards for five years before he started writing and illustrating his own books. In 2001–2002 Browne took a job as writer and illustrator at Tate Britain, working with children using art as a stimulus to inspire visual literacy and creative writing activities. It was during this time that Browne conceived and produced *The Shape Game*(Doubleday, 2003).

**Themes**

Anthony Browne is a British writer and illustrator of children's books, primarily picture books, and as one of the world's most celebrated creators of children's picture books, with classics such as Gorilla, Voices in the Park, Willy the Wimp and Zoo to his name. Anthony Browne's first book is full of the surreal details and visual humour that have made him one of the world's most popular and acclaimed picture **book**artists. Anthony Browne often uses gorillas in his picture books. Sometimes they are a stand-in for human beings, such as with Voices in the Park (1997). In this book, four characters - an upper-class mother and her son and a working-class father and his daughter - are each depicted as gorillas. Each character has the chance to tell his or her own version of the brief interaction they have with one another in the park one afternoon, revealing their own emotions and prejudices. My Dad by Anthony Browne is a story written in the first person narrative. Browne is saying all the great things about this dad and throughout the story the dad will be illustrated as those things. For example, when it is said the dad is as wise as an owl, the dad’s body is all there but his head is that of an owl.

**Style**

Gorillas are frequently featured in Browne's books, as he has said he is fascinated by them. He was once asked to present a children's programme, whilst sitting in a cage of gorillas, and despite being badly bitten by one of them he completed the interview before being taken to hospital.[14] his character "Willy" is said to be based on himself. Browne's debut book both as writer and as illustrator was *Through the Magic Mirror*, published by Hamish Hamilton in 1976. *A Walk in the Park* followed next year and gained a cult followingand *Bear Hunt* (1979) was more successful commercially. His breakthrough came with *Gorilla*, published by Julia MacRae in 1983, based on one of his greeting cards. For it he won the Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognizing the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. He was a highly commended runner-up for an edition of *Alice in Wonderland* (1988), he won the 1992 Medal for *Zoo*and he was again highly commended for *Willy's Pictures* (2000).

**Bibliography**

For his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator he won the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2000, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. From 2009 to 2011 he was Children's Laureate. Browne won two Kate Greenaway Medals from the Library Association, recognizing the year's best children's book illustration. For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel named his 1983 medalist *Gorilla* one of the top ten winning works, which composed the ballot for a public election of the nation's favorite.  Browne and writer Annalena McAfee won the 1985 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, Picture Book category, for *Mein Papi, nur meiner!* (The Visitors Who Came to Stay). He also won the Kurt Maschler Award "Emil" three times, which annually (1982 to 1999) recognized one British "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other." Browne was a winner for *Gorilla* (Julia MacRae Books, 1983), *Alice's Adventure in Wonderland* (MacRae, 1988) and *Voices in the Park* (Doubleday, 1998), as the illustrator of all three books and the writer of two.  In 2000 Browne was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, an international award given to an illustrator for their body of work. This prize is the highest honour a children's writer or illustrator can win and Browne was the first British illustrator to receive the award. On 9 June 2009 he was appointed the sixth Children's Laureate (2009–2011), selected by a panel that former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion chaired.

**Criticism**

Anthony Browne is an internationally-recognized author and illustrator of children's books, with over thirty titles to his name. He attended Leeds Art College, where he graduated with a graphic arts degree in 1967. Before focusing full-time on children's books, he worked as a medical illustrator for three years and illustrated greeting cards for Gordon Fraser in the UK for fifteen years. His books have received many distinctions, including the British Library Association's Kate Greenaway Medal in 1983 for Gorilla and in 1992 for Zoo. Most recently, he traveled to Colombia to accept the International Board on Books for Young People's Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration for the body of his work. He lives in Kent, England with his wife and two children. Browne's books are translated into 26 languages and his illustrations have been exhibited in many countries including; The United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, France, Korea, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, and Taiwan. He currently lives in Canterbury, England.

**Other Information**

His parents, Jack and Doris May Browne, ran a pub near Bradford, Yorkshire, and Browne and his older brother Michael grew up there. His children are Browne (b 1982), Ellen Browne

**As writer and illustrator, he published many books:**

·      *Through the Magic Mirror* (Hamish Hamilton, 1976)

·      *A Walk in the Park* (Hamilton, 1977)

·      *Bear Hunt* (Hamilton, 1979)

·      *Look What I've Got!* (Julia MacRae Books, 1980)

·      *Bear Goes To Town* (Hamilton, 1982)

·      *Gorilla* (MacRae, 1983) —winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration[11] and the Emil

·      *Willy the Wimp* (MacRae, 1984)

·      *Willy the Champ* (MacRae, 1985)

·      *Piggybook* (MacRae, 1986)

·      *I Like Books* (MacRae, 1988)

·      *The Little Bear Book* (Hamilton, 1988)

·      *A Bear-y Tale* (Hamilton, 1989)

·      *Things I Like* (MacRae, 1989)

·      *The Tunnel* (MacRae, 1989)

·      *Changes* (MacRae, 1990)

·      *Willy and Hugh* (MacRae, 1991)

·      *Zoo* (MacRae, 1992) —winner of the Greenaway Medal

·      *The Big Baby: a little joke* (MacRae, 1993)

·      *Willy the Wizard* (MacRae, 1995)

·      *Willy the Dreamer* (Walker, 1997)

·      *Voices in the Park* (Doubleday, 1998) —winner of the Emil

·      *My Dad* (Doubleday, 2000)

·      *Willy's Pictures* (Walker, 2000) —highly commended for the Greenaway

·      *Anthony Browne Presents the Animal Fair: a spectacular pop-up* (Walker,2002)

·      *The Shape Game* (MacRae, 2003)

·      *Into the Forest* (MacRae, 2004)

·      *My Mum* (Doubleday, 2005)

·      *Silly Billy* (Walker, 2006)

·      *My Brother* (Doubleday, 2007)

·      *Little Beauty* (Walker, 2008)

·      *Me and You* (Doubleday, 2011) —a retelling of *The Story of the Three Bears* in a contemporary setting

·      *Play the Shape Game* (Walker, 2011)

·      *How Do You Feel?* (Walker, 2011, ISBN 9781406330175)

·      *One Gorilla, A Counting Book* (Walker, 2012)

·      *What If...?* (Doubleday, 2013)

·      *Willy's Stories* (Walker, 2014)

·      *Frida and Bear* (Walker, 2015)

·      *Willy and the Cloud* (Walker, 2016)

·      *Hide and Seek* (Doubleday, 2017, ISBN 9780857534910)

**As illustrator, he also have many works :**

·      *Hansel and Gretel* by Brothers Grimm (MacRae, 1981)

·      *The Visitors Who Came to Stay* by Annalena McAfee (Hamilton, 1984) – winner of the 1985 German youth literature prize for picture books in its German-language translation retaining Browne's illustrations

·      *Knock, knock! Who's there?* by Sally Grindley (Hamilton, 1985), picture book

·      *Kirsty Knows Best* by Annalena McAfee (MacRae, 1987), picture book

·      *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* by Lewis Carroll (MacRae, 1988) – an edition of the 1865 classic, highly commended for the Greenaway and winner of the Emil

·      *Trail of Stones* by Gwen Strauss (MacRae, 1990), picture book

·      *The Night Shimmy* by Gwen Strauss (MacRae, 1991), picture book

·      *The Topiary Garden* by Janni Howker (Hamilton, 1993), short stories published 1991

·      *Anthony Browne's King Kong* (MacRae, 1994) – from the 1932 novelised story of King Kong

·      *The Daydreamer* by Ian McEwan (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), novella

·      *Anthony Browne, Playing the Shape Game* by Joe Browne (Doubleday, 2011), biography