Judith Kerr

Judith Kerr
Born	Anne Judith Kerr (1923-06-14) 14 June 1923 Berlin, Germany
Genre	Children's and young adult fiction
Notable works	The Tiger Who Came to Tea, the Mog series, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Spouse	Nigel Kneale (1954–2006, his death)

Anne Judith Kerr, OBE (pron. "Carr"; born 14 June 1923) is a German-born British writer and illustrator. She has created both enduring picture books such as the Mog series and The Tiger Who Came to Tea and acclaimed novels for older children such as the autobiographical When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit which give a child's-eye view of the Second World War.

Youth

Kerr was born in Berlin, the daughter of Alfred Kerr (1867–1948), a German-Jewish theatre critic who had changed his name from Kempner to Kerr in 1887. She had a brother, Michael. In 1933, just before the Nazis first came to power, the family left Germany, fearful because Alfred Kerr had openly criticised the Nazis. Kerr's books were burned by the Nazis shortly after he fled Germany. The family travelled first to Switzerland and then on into France, before finally settling in Britain, where Judith Kerr has lived ever since. She subsequently became a naturalised British citizen.

Life in London

During the Second World War, Judith Kerr worked for the Red Cross, helping wounded soldiers, before being awarded a scholarship to study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and becoming an artist. She was later prompted by her future husband – screenwriter Nigel Kneale – to apply for a job as a BBC television scriptwriter. She got the job and she and Kneale were married in 1954; they remained married until Kneale's death in 2006. They had two children: their son Matthew Kneale is also a writer, winning the Book of the Year prize at the Whitbread Book Awards in 2000 for the novel English Passengers. Their daughter, Tacy Kneale, works in the special effects industry, and worked on the Harry Potter films. Tacy plans also to write children's books.

Books

Kerr is best known for her children's books. Although she dreamed of being a famous writer as a child, she only started writing and drawing books when her own children were learning to read. She has written self-illustrated picture titles such as the 17-strong Mog series and the highly successful The Tiger Who Came to Tea. She has written novels for children such as the autobiographical When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and The Other Way Round, tell the story of the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Germany from a child's perspective. Again it was her children that occasioned this writing: when her son was eight he saw The Sound of Music and remarked "now we know what it was like when Mummy was a little girl". Kerr wanted him to know what it was really like and so wrote When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

Kerr lives in Barnes, London, the same house she has lived in since 1962. She says that since the death of her husband writing has become more important than ever and she continues to write and illustrate new children's books with Twinkles, Arthur and Puss published in 2008 and One Night in the Zoo in 2009.

She won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1974 for her young adult novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

Kerr was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to children's literature and Holocaust education.

Legacy

In 2013, Britain's first bilingual school in English and German, the de in Herne Hill, south London, was named after her.

Bibliography

• The Tiger Who Came to Tea (1968)
• The Mog series:
  • Mog the Forgetful Cat (1970)
  • Mog's Christmas (1976)
  • Mog and the Baby (1980)
  • Mog in the Dark (1983)
  • Mog and Me (1984)
  • Mog's Family of Cats (1985)
  • Mog's Amazing Birthday Caper (1986)
  • Mog and Bunny (1988)
  • Mog and Barnaby (1991)
  • Look Out, Mog (1991)
  • Mog on Fox Night (1993)
  • Mog in the Garden (1994)
  • Mog's Kittens (1994)
  • Mog and the Granny (1995)
  • Mog and the Vee Ee Tee (1996)
  • Mog's Bad Thing (2000)
  • Goodbye, Mog (2002)
• The "Out of the Hitler Time" trilogy:
  • When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971)
  • The Other Way Round (1975) (later reissued as Bombs on Aunt Dainty)
  • A Small Person Far Away (1987)

Other books

• When Willy Went to the Wedding (1973)
• How Mrs Monkey Missed the Ark (1996)
• Birdie Halleluyah! (1998)
• The Other Goose (2001)
• Goose in a Hole (2005)
• Twinkles, Arthur and Puss (2008)
• One Night in the Zoo (2009)
• My Henry (2011)
• The Great Granny Gang (2012)
• Judith Kerr's Creatures (2013)
• The Crocodile Under the Bed (2014)
• Mr Cleghorn's Seal (2015)

External links

• 'I was enchanted by the strangeness of cats' – video , The Guardian