About Rachel Anderson

Born in 1943, Rachel Anderson is the second of the five children of the popular author, Verily Anderson. Rachel began her own working life in journalism. She worked for BBC radio, newspapers and women's magazines. For ten years she was children's book reviews editor for 'Good Housekeeping'. She won the Medical Journalists Award in 1990.

Her first novel, Pineapple, was published with Jonathan Cape, in 1965. After three more books for adults, she graduated to fiction for a younger readership. She has now about 50 books for children and 'nearly-adults', with translations into a dozen languages.

Many of her books have been for, or about, young people living with learning disability. Recently, her stories have also featured children forced to flee their country of origin and try to seek shelter in Europe.

Rachel was married for 45 years to David Bradby, writer and translator. He died in 2011. Rachel has six grandchildren, aged between two to 14, eight nephews and seventeen nieces.