Annalena McAfee (born c.1952)Daniel Zalewsk
"The Background Hum"
''New Yorker'', 23 February 2009. In this article about her husband, Ian McEwan, McAfee is aged 56; other sources claim she was born in 1948. Annalena is a British children's author and journalist.

Biography

In 2003 she served as a judge for the

Orange Prize for Fiction The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...

, the UK's largest annual literary award. She has also been on the panel for ''

The South Bank Show ''The South Bank Show'' is a British television arts magazine series originally produced by London Weekend Television and broadcast on ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new version of the series began 27 May 2012 on Sky Arts. Conceived, written, ...

'' arts awards, the Ben Pimlott Prize for political writing (2005), ''The Guardian''/

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

photography competition for cover art (2006), the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction, and other

awards An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award ...

. Literary festivals where she has spoken include

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

(2003) and

Hay-on-Wye Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the t ...

(2005). In 2008 she served as a judge for the Orwell Prize (for political writing). McAfee was the editor of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

's'' review supplement, the ''Guardian Review'', from 1999 until July 2006, when she resigned to pursue a writing career. Before working for ''The Guardian'' she was a literary journalist at the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' and theatre critic on the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

''. She has written a number of children's books, some which have been translated into French, German and Dutch. McAfee has also edited an anthology of literary profiles from ''The Guardian''. McAfee married the British novelist

Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan, (born 21 June 1948) is an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of th ...

in 1997 after having first met him at an interview she conducted for a profile in the ''

''.

Selected works

Mainstream fiction

* '' The Spoiler'' (2011) * ''Hame'' (2017) * ''Nightshade'' (2020)

Youth titles

* ''All the Way to the Stars'' * ''Busy Baby'' * ''Kirsty Knows Best'' * ''Patrick's Perfect Pet'' * ''The Girl Who Got to No. 1'' * ''Dreamkidz and the Ice Cream that Conquered the World '' * ''Why Do Stars Come Out at Night?'' * ''The Visitors Who Came to Stay'' (awarded the

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis The (German Youth Literature Award) is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's and young adult literature. It is Germany's only ...

)

References

External links

''Guardian Review''

Notification of resignation from Guardian Review
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 28 May 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:McAfee, Annalena 1950s births Living people English women journalists English women novelists British women children's writers English women non-fiction writers