Childhood and education

As a children, she was brought up in the USA by her mother and grandparents until the end of the Second World War. After WWII, she lived in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, with her parents. They later moved to Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

 and Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

. Inter alia, she attended boarding school in England and later studied at Somerville College

Somerville College, Oxford

Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there...

, Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

.

Career

Schlee has spent much of her writing career in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. She was especially active in the 1970s to the 1990s.

Awards and honours

She won the 1980 Guardian Award

Guardian Award

The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award is a prominent award for works of children's literature by British or Commonwealth authors, published in the United Kingdom during the preceding year. The award has been given annually since 1967, and is decided by a panel of authors and the...

 for Children's Fiction for her novel The Vandal. Her novel Rhine Journey was shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize.
She was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Royal Society of Literature

The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...

 in 1997.

Personal life

Ann Schlee lives with her husband, the artist Nick Schlee

Nick Schlee

Nick Schlee is a British artist. He mainly produces landscape paintings.-Life and work:Schlee was born in Weybridge, Surrey. In 1947, he won Gold and Silver medals for under 18s from the Royal Drawing Society. He matriculated at University College, Oxford in 1952. In 1955, he studied part-time at...

, in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

. She has four children.

Selected books

Ann Schlee has written a number of books including:

• The Strangers, 1971.
• The Consul's Daughter, 1972.
• Guns of Darkness, 1973.
• Ask Me No Questions, 1979.
• The Vandal, Macmillan
  Macmillan Publishers
  Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
  
  , 1980.
• Rhine Journey, Henry Holt & Co, 1981.
• The Proprietor, 1983.
• Laing, 1987.
• The Proprietor, 1996.
• The Time in Aderra, Macmillan, 1998.