Anthea Bell
Anthea Bell is a well known translator who has translated numerous literary works, especially children's literature, from
French,
German,
Danish and
Polish to
English. She is however, best remembered for her witty and innovative translations of the French
Asterix comics along with co-translator
Dereck Hockridge.
Anthea 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 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.
Anthea Bell has also translated a large number of novels, as well as some books on
art history, and
musicology into English. Her translations of
W.G. Sebald's
Austerlitz and
E.T.A. Hoffmann's
The Life and Opinions of the Tomcatt Murrhas have been well received critically. She presently lives and works from
Cambridge,
United Kingdom.
Some of the more notable awards that Anthea Bell won :
*
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*
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 
