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Annalena McAfee | |
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| Alma mater | Essex University |
| Occupation(s) | Children's author and journalist |
| Spouse | |
| Awards | Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis |
Annalena McAfee (born c.1952)[1] is a British children's author and journalist. She was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature in 2018.[2]
Annalena McAfee was born in 1952 inLondon, England, to parents fromGlasgow, Scotland.[3] She was educated atEssex University.[4]
In 2003, she served as a judge for theOrange Prize for Fiction, the UK's largest annual literary award. She has also been on the panel forThe South Bank Show arts awards, the Ben Pimlott Prize for political writing (2005),The Guardian/Penguin photography competition for cover art (2006), the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction, and otherawards. Literary festivals where she has spoken includePrague (2003) andHay-on-Wye (2005). In 2008, she served as a judge for theOrwell Prize (for political writing).
McAfee was the editor ofThe Guardian's review supplement, theGuardian Review, from 1999 until July 2006, when she resigned to pursue a writing career.[5] Before working forThe Guardian, she was a literary journalist at theFinancial Times and theatre critic on theEvening Standard.[5]
McAfee has written a number of children's books, some which have been translated into French, German and Dutch.
Her first novel,The Spoiler, was published in 2011.Anne Sebba noted inThe Independent the novel's "extremely funny and sharply observed scenes",[6] andMichiko Kakutani, reviewing it inThe New York Times, wrote that "McAfee manages to fuse satire and observation together in a potent brew."[7]
McAfee's "richly textured, playful second novel for adults" was entitledHame (2017),[8] summed up by literary criticStuart Kelly as "a curious confection indeed. ... a sweet and quaint novel, full of just-in-time revelations and obvious fondness",[9] and described by reviewer Will Gore as "a novel about identity; both with specific regard to Scottish character and nationalism and to broader questions of how we attach ourselves to people over place, or vice versa, and of how we construct our personal life stories."[10]
About McAfee's next novel,Nightshade, published in 2020.[11]Joanna Briscoe concluded: "The ending is simultaneously overdramatic and yet vastly satisfying. Patience is rewarded, andNightshade's questions continue to intrigue."[12]
McAfee also edited the anthologyLives and Works (2002), a collection of literary profiles fromThe Guardian.[5]
McAfee married the British novelistIan McEwan in 1997, having first met him at a 1994 interview she conducted for a profile in theFinancial Times.[1][13]
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