Anne Rooney writes fiction for children, and non-fiction for children and adults. She has published more than 150 books. She relishes the challenge of presenting a compelling and sophisticated story in simple, accessible language for teenagers with low levels of literacy. Writing non-fiction gives her the opportunity to share her passionate interests in science and history and to try to engender wonder in her readers. Her adult non-fiction is predominantly popular science and philosophy; her children’s non-fiction covers a wide range of subjects. Recent fiction includes the Vampire Dawn series (2012) for teenagers; recent non-fiction includes 50 Amazing Things Kids Need to Know about Mathematics (2011) for children and The Story of Philosophy (2013) for adults.
Anne is expanding the range of her fiction, starting to write for children who are newly confident readers, aged eight+. She particularly enjoys writing gothic and slightly dark stories, and in combining science with fiction — though not necessarily in science fiction per se. She writes the popular publishing blog Stroppy Author’s Guide to Publishing and is keen to help emerging writers find their feet in the publishing world, an interest that has developed from her experience as an RLF Fellow.
Before turning to full-time writing, Anne completed a PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge, and taught medieval English and French literature at the universities of Cambridge and York. She teaches creative writing as part of the Pembroke–King’s summer programme in Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge and has two daughters.
