Anne Wood, CBE (born 18 December 1937) is a British Puppet Creator and an English children's television producer, responsible for creating shows such as Teletubbies with Andrew Davenport. She is also the creator of Tots TV and Rosie and Jim. She was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award.

Early years

She was born in Spennymoor, County Durham, England, and grew up in Tudhoe Colliery, a small coal-mining village nearby.

Career

She qualified as a secondary school teacher through the Bingley Training College in Yorkshire and took up her first teaching post back home in Spennymoor. She married Barrie Wood in 1959 and moved to Surbiton in Surrey where she took up a teaching role at Hollyfield Road Secondary School. This was the era of the first children's paperback book and Anne became an early pioneer of a children's paperback book club scheme for schools set up by Scholastic Publications. She retired from teaching on the birth of her daughter and was taken on by Scholastic as editor of their Children's Book Club.

Children’s books

When the Wood family moved to Byfleet in Surrey, she expanded her interest in how books and children's development could be brought together. In 1965, she founded and edited a quarterly magazine Books for Your Children, a publication aimed at parents, teachers, and librarians and fully supported by children's publishers. Initially the UK Arts Council supported the magazine with a small financial grant. As a further promotion of children's books, in 1969, Wood set up the Federation of Children's Book Groups, an organisation still in existence today. Also, in 1969, in recognition of her contribution to the promotion of children's books, Wood was awarded the Eleanor Farjeon Award.

Television producer

Productions (with first transmission years)

Awards

Personal

Productions, For Yorkshire TV

Productions, As Ragdoll Productions

Pob’s Programme Playbox Brum

Rosie and Jim

Magic Mirror

BOOM!

Tots TV

Storytime

Open a Door

Badjelly the Witch

Teletubbies

Teletubbies Everywhere

Boohbah

What Makes Me Happy

In the Night Garden...

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