'I hope to encourage more children to discover and love reading, but I want to focus particularly on the appreciation of picture books, and the reading of both pictures and words. 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.'
Anthony Browne
Anthony Browne is an internationally acclaimed author and illustrator of children's books, with nearly forty titles to his name. He creates strongly narrative watercolours that blend near-photographic realism with fantastical, surreal touches and ingenious visual puns. His skilful use of colour, pattern and background detail subtly conveys an exquisite empathy for his lonely and sensitive child protagonists (both human and ape). 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 was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1946 and grew up near Halifax. Inspired by his father (who was a professional boxer for a short time and then a landlord, a school teacher and a soldier), he was interested in art and drawing from an early age. 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.'
When he left school, Anthony 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.
Anthony had his first book, Through the Magic Mirror, published in 1976, and a number of other successful books followed. Gorilla, published in 1983, won an unprecedented number of awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal, the Emil/Kurt Maschler Award, the New York Times Best Illustrated Book and The Boston Globe Book Award. It is now universally accepted as a classic. One of his best-loved characters is the chimp, Willy, who has appeared in Willy the Wimp, Willy the Champ, Willy and Hugh and Willy the Wizard.
His books have received many distinctions, including the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1983 for Gorilla and again in 1992 for Zoo. Gorilla (1983), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1988) and Voices in the Park (1998) all won the Kurt Maschler Emil Award. 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 ever to win the prize. More recently he was Illustrator in Residence at the Tate. The Shape Game was based on his experiences of this time and was shortlisted for the 2004 Kate Greenaway Award. It has also been voted the Honor Book in the US Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature.
Anthony was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education at Kingston University in 2005. His work has been widely exhibited and his books are published all over the world. In May he was invited to Korea, to see his work exhibited at Hangram Design Museum in Seoul, and while he was there he ran workshops with children and played the shape game with them.
Anthony Browne lives in Kent.
Read an interview with Anthony Browne on Booktrust's children's books website
Read more about Anthony Browne on the Walker Books website
Read more about Anthony Browne on the Random House Children’s Books website
image © Laurence Cendrowicz 2009
