Goggle-Eyes is a children's novel by Anne Fine

Anne Fine

Anne Fine, OBE FRSL is a British author best known for her children's books, of which she has written more than 50. She also writes for adults...

, first published in 1989. The book won the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

  and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award. American editions are titled My War with Goggle-Eyes.

Goggle-Eyes was adapted for television by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in 1993.

Plot summary

The story is told in the first person

First-person narrative

First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...

, by Kitty Killen. It is set in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 in the 1980s, when anti-nuclear protests

Anti-nuclear protests

Anti-nuclear protests first emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the United Kingdom, the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, took place in 1958. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace...

 were prominent in the news.

When Helen runs out of the classroom in distress, Mrs Lupey sends Kitty after her, despite the two not being particular friends. Kitty soon realizes that Helen dislikes the man her mother is going to marry, so she tells her the story of how she first loathed Gerald, her mother's boyfriend, and how she gradually got used to him, despite his anti-CND views. "Goggle-Eyes"' is the nickname Kitty gives Gerald, because of the way he stares ("goggles") at Kitty's mother. The story is told in a cloakroom cupboard during one morning, with occasional interruptions from Liz and Mrs Lupey.

The characters

• Kitty Killen, a Scottish schoolgirl, the narrator
• Rosalind "Rosie" Killen, Kitty's mother, a nurse
• Judith "Jude" Killen, Kitty's younger sister
• Gerald Faulkner, Rosalind's boyfriend
• Floss, the Killens' cat
• Helen "Helly" Johnston, a classmate of Kitty's
• Liz, Helen's best friend
• Mrs Lupey, the form teacher
• Josie, Beth, Ben and others, CND protesters
• Inspector McGee, head of the police presence at the protest

Literary significance and reception

Goggle-Eyes was awarded the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

 for 1989 and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award in 1990, the two most prestigious British awards for children's literature. It was also shortlisted for the Smarties Award

Nestlé Smarties Book Prize

The Nestlé Children's Book Prize, also known as the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, was an annual award given to children's books written in the previous year by a UK citizen or resident. The prize was administered by Booktrust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading, and sponsored by...

 in 1990 and the German Youth Literature Prize in 1993.

Television adaptatation

Goggle-Eyes was adapted for television by the BBC as a four-episode mini-series, which was broadcast in 1993. It starred Honeysuckle Weeks

Honeysuckle Weeks

Honeysuckle Weeks is a British actress, best known for her starring role as Samantha Stewart in the British TV series Foyle's War, since 2002.-Background:...

 as Kitty. The screenwriter, Deborah Moggach

Deborah Moggach

Deborah Moggach is an English writer. She has written sixteen novels to date, including The Ex-Wives, Tulip Fever, and, most recently, These Foolish Things. She has adapted many of her novels as TV dramas and has also written several film scripts, including the BAFTA-nominated screenplay for Pride...

, won the Writer's Guild

Writers' Guild of Great Britain

The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

 Award for Best Adapted TV Serial. As the anti-nuclear protests had declined after the end of the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, the political issue was changed to a more general 'green'

Green politics

Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy...

one as being more topical.