Anne Cottringer

Anne Cottringer was born in Niagara Falls Canada. On warm summer nights with her bedroom window open, she used to listen to the roar of Niagara Falls and dream of being of writer. After university in Canada, she came to England to do post-graduate work in film and television.

Based in London, she worked in television as a lighting/camera woman and as director, shooting documentary films in England and abroad - travelling to Africa, South America, India, and many places in Europe. She also was part of a small group that, in the early nineties founded "Vertigo", a film magazine, which continues to be published today.

After her first son was born, she took a children's writing course and tried her hand at writing children's books. Her first picture book, ELLA AND THE NAUGHTY LION, was published in 1996. Since then she has had several picture books published including DANNY AND THE GREAT WHITE BEAR, BUSTER'S BARK and BUSTER'S BONE, BRUNA and MARY IS SCARY as well as a book for young readers, ROSA AND GALILEO, in the Flying Foxes series. Anne writes in between freelance jobs and has long been a member of a children's writing group which provides its members with a lot of healthy criticism. She now lives in Hereford.

Life’s not easy when your name is Flower Power. It's no great surprise that Flower's dippy, hippy parents, who used to run a flower shop, would call their daughter a crazy name and never consider the mortal embarrassment. But it doesn't help that since the shop went under, Flower is forced to move every few months and be introduced to a new class each time… Or that her mum and dad are so wrapped up in each other they leave her to her own lonely devices.

What they fail to notice is that Flower has a wonderful voice and just loves to sing. They simply ask her to keep the noise down.

Settling into yet another new town and a new school, Flower begins a rollercoaster friendship with her classmate Cat, who tends to be more captivated by the boys in the year above. She also befriends Mick, an elderly flower-seller, who introduces her to the sounds of Billie Holliday and Janis Joplin, and who believes that Flower can find her own ‘soul’. However, it takes support both musical and moral from a rather unlikely source for Flower to have the courage to really sing her heart out - in public.

SINGING IT is a touching portrayal of friendship, fitting in, and the transformative power of music.