Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog
author wins
BookTrust
Lifetime Achievement Award 2016
Author and illustrator Judith Kerr, who
escaped from Hitler’s Germany as a child and went on to write over 30
children’s books, including one of the best-selling of all time, The
Tiger Who Came to Tea, has been named BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, 2016.
The award, which BookTrust set up to
celebrate the body of work of an author or illustrator who has made an
outstanding contribution to children’s literature, is being presented to Judith
at a ceremony hosted by former
Children’s Laureate and BookTrust President, Michael Morpurgo, at London Zoo on
Wednesday 6 July 2016. {For more information on this please see contact
details.}
The judges of the Book Trust
Lifetime Achievement Award were:
·
Nicolette Jones, writer, critic and broadcaster, specialising in literary and arts
journalism
·
Shami Chakrabarti, human rights campaigner and chair of the
Baileys Prize for Womens’ Fiction in 2015
·
Cressida Cowell, author and illustrator of twelve books in
the popular How to Train Your Dragon series which has sold over seven
million copies worldwide
·
Chris Riddell, prolific writer and illustrator,
Children’s Laureate
·
John Agard, one of the most exciting poets writing
in the English language today and winner of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry
in 2013
·
Diana Gerald, BookTrust chief executive.
Judith
Kerr said: “I am honoured and
delighted that I have been chosen to receive the BookTrust’s Lifetime
Achievement Award. I thank them very much, and as the presentation is to be at
London Zoo, I’ll also be able to thank the tigers in the tiger enclosure who
started it all.”
Judith
is best known for her children's books, including the 17-strong Mog
series and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and her biographical trilogy
Out
of the Hitler Time, that tells the story of her family’s flight from
Nazi Germany, and travel through Switzerland, France and eventually settling in
England. She has sold more than nine million books world-wide and her works
have been translated into 25 different languages.
Mog has featured on bestseller lists for the past 30
years and sold more than four million copies. In December 2015 Mog’s Christmas Calamity was
published in association with Sainsburys and was the subject of their Christmas
advertising, raising over one million pounds for Save the Children’s literacy
campaign. On the week of publication, it was the fastest selling book in the
industry reaching No. 1
in the overall book charts for four weeks, making it the bestselling picture
book of 2015.
Judith’s first picture book, The
Tiger Who Came to Tea, was published in 1968 and became a classic,
selling over 5 million copies, making it one of the best- selling children’s
books of all time.
In September this year Judith will
travel to Berlin for the publication of Mister Cleghorn’s Seal in Germany by
Fischer-Verlag, the publishers of her father Alfred Kerr’s books in Germany.
In 2012, Judith
was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s
Birthday Honours List for her services to children's literature and Holocaust
Education.
As Britain’s largest reading charity, BookTrust is
keen to see children’s authors acknowledged for their part in getting children
to adopt a lifelong love of reading, so they can reap the many benefits that
reading for pleasure can bring.
Book Trust CEO, Diana Gerald, says:
“Great authors and illustrators bring children to books and books to
children. We know that books can be the life-changing milestone in children’s
lives and we want to celebrate the work of authors whose books have that kind
of impact.
“Judith is one of those people. Her fantastic stories and illustrations
have enthralled children and their parents over several generations, and
continue to do so to this day. Her remarkable life is only eclipsed by the
remarkably enduring tales of her characters and creatures: Mog, the adventurous and engaging cat, and
the tiger who came into so many of our lives when gatecrashing tea-time in
Sophie’s household. We are truly thrilled to be here today to honour Judith’s life’s work with this award.”
Lifetime Achievement Award judge
chairperson, Nicolette Jones said:
“Judith
Kerr created one of our most enduringly loved picture books in The
Tiger Who Came to Tea, continuously in print since 1968. In her stories
of Mog
the cat, who thinks like a child in a grown-up world, in all her picture books,
and in her astonishing new departure into illustrated young fiction in her 90s,
Mr
Cleghorn’s Seal, Judith has shown charm, skill, humour and empathy,
while her trilogy beginning with When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit has
had a significant impact on a generation’s understanding of the Holocaust,
wartime Europe, and the experience of refugees. She is an important witness to
history and has made a huge contribution to illustration and to our reading
culture.”
·
Comments from some other judges below.
No comments:
Post a Comment