Anthea Bell
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Anthea Bell is a translator who has translated numerous literary works, especially children's literature, from French, German, Danish and Polish to English. She is, however, best known for her translations of the French Asterix comics along with co-translator Derek Hockridge.
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[edit] Biography
Bell was born in Suffolk, United Kingdom. According to her own accounts, she picked up lateral thinking abilities essential in a translator from her father Adrian Bell, Suffolk author and the first Times cryptic crossword setter. She was educated at Somerville College, Oxford.
She presently lives and works from Cambridge, United Kingdom. Her son, Oliver Kamm, is a columnist for The Times. Her brother, Martin Bell, is a former MP and a former BBC correspondent, who is now an ambassador for UNICEF.
[edit] Works
Anthea Bell has translated numerous Franco-Belgian comics of the bande dessinée genre into English, most notably Asterix – for which her innovative new puns have been critically acclaimed for keeping the original French spirit intact. Other notable comic books she has translated include Le Petit Nicolas, Lieutenant Blueberry, and Iznogoud.
She specializes in translating children's literature, and has re-translated Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales from Danish for the publishing house of G. P. Putnam's Sons. Other work includes The Princess and the Captain (2006), translated from La Princetta et le capitaine by Anne-Laure Bondoux. A book aimed to the youth, but serious enough to be read by adults, The Satanic Mill by Otfried Preußler was translated by her from the german original Krabat.
Bell has also translated a large number of adult novels, as well as some books on art history, and musicology into English. Her translations of W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz (plus other works by Sebald), a large selection of Stefan Zweig's novellas and stories, and E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr have been well received critically.
[edit] Notable awards
- 1996 – Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation – for A Dog's Life translated from German (author: Christine Nöstlinger)
- 2002 – Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize, Goethe Institute – for translating W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz
- 2002 – Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – for translating W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz
- 2003 – Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation – for Where Were You Robert? translated from German (author: Hans Magnus Enzensberger)
- 2007 – Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation – for The Flowing Queen translated from German (author: Kai Meyer)
[edit] References
- Asterix, My Love - An article by Anthea Bell at the Asterix website
- Anthea Bell's workshop on Asterix
- Opening Speech, Anthea Bell, Shelving Translation Conference, April 2004
