Rachel Anderson

Rachel Anderson was born in 1943 and worked for 20 years for BBC Radio, newspapers and magazines as a journalist. She was Children's Book Reviews Editor at Good Housekeeping magazine for 10 years, and in 1990 won the Medical Journalists Award. Several of her short stories have been published in anthologies. Her first published book was for adults - Pineapple, in 1965, and she wrote three other adult books: The Purple Heart Throbs, the sub-literature of love (1974); Dream Lovers (1978); and For the Love of Sang (1990). Since then she has written solely for children and young adults. Her typical themes include war, asylum seekers, abandonment and bereavement, and she also writes books for and about people living with learning disabilities. The latter include Joe's Story (2001); and Big Ben (1998), the story of Matthew, whose older brother Ben has Down's Syndrome and is leaving home to go to residential college. Her other books for children include two trilogies: The 'Little Angel' Trilogy (1984-1991); and The 'Moving Times' Trilogy (1999-2000). Her books for older readers include: This Strange New Life (2006), which explores the effects of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome on a family; and Red Moon (2006). Her picture books for younger readers include translations of French tales, and Hello Peanut! (2003).