Anne Atkins

Anne Atkins (born 1956) is an English broadcaster, journalist and novelist. A regular contributor to the Today programme's "Thought for the Day" feature, she is the author of three novels: The Lost Child, On Our Own and A Fine and Private Place.

Anne Atkins was born in 1956 at Bryanston, Dorset, and moved to Cambridge at the age of three when her father, David Briggs, became headmaster of King's College School. She went to Byron House School, the Cambridgeshire High School for Girls and the Perse School for Girls. After school, she went to the Decroux School of Mime in Paris and studied harp under Solonge Renie. She studied English language and literature at Brasenose College, Oxford and then trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Atkins started her acting career at St George’s Shakespeare Theatre in Tufnell Park. Her career moved increasingly into writing until her last theatre appearance at the National Theatre in 1991.

The Lost Child is based on a true story in which a family makes a decision one summer which haunts five-year-old Sandy into adulthood. The novel is interwoven with the history of Cassandra, the sooth-saying daughter of Priam, King of Troy.

On Our Own is its sequel: a murder mystery set in Cambridge, featuring a ten-year-old boy with Asperger Syndrome and his violinist mother. It examines issues around domestic violence; just as A Fine and Private Place, also a murder mystery set in and around Cambridge, tackles child abuse.

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