Annie Stewart

My name is Annie Stewart and I was born in Bushey, Hertfordshire. I attended private school until I
was 18 and was mad keen to get into the arts in some way so after a brief spell at Foyles in the
Charing Cross road I went to Pitmans Secretarial College and got into Sotheby’s as a secretary. I
worked there for many happy years, firstly in the book department and particularly in the wine
department! I moved to Suffolk in 1985 having married the previous year and had two children,
Tom and Alice, who are now in their thirties; my daughter married in 2018 and has a little boy called
Freddie and a little girl called Lily. I love being a Grannie! My son got married in July 2022 following
several delays due to the pandemic. My marriage split up in 2001 so coping with working in
Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Museum) and being a single mum left very little spare time for writing.

My love of reading and writing comes from my dad, who sadly died in 2008. I dedicated my first
book to him (PAW). Those were his initials and he always signed his watercolours that way. Dad
used to make up stories for me when I was little and I always had my nose in a book. Much later on,
I loved reading to my own children and I really missed it when they were old enough to read
themselves. When the children left home I started writing more seriously and it was during that
time that my first book The Adventures of Wilf was published with Book Guild and I met my
wonderful second husband, Philip, when I persuaded him to let me do a signing with Waterstones!
Fairy tales do happen…

Philip and I now live in Cheltenham with our dark grey tortoiseshell cat, Boots who makes an
appearance in my new book! Philip is a Reading Champion/Consultant and we are both passionate
about children reading and writing and supporting their local libraries and bookshops. When not
writing I like walking, listening to music (we love the opera and ballet) and go as often as we can; we
also enjoy the proms. It goes without saying that I love reading, other peoples’ books of course!
Today, my job is writing more stories and I have just written my first novella, The Fifth Daughter. I
also enjoy running Creative Workshops in schools called ‘Drawing with Words’ and working with a
special needs school in Cheltenham. The first book in the Pickle series Pickle & Lily was featured at
the 70 th anniversary of the Literature Festival here in Cheltenham in 2019.