ABOUT US

ANNO'S AFRICA is a registered charity, whose number is 1131645.
ANNO'S AFRICA is registered with Companies House as a limited company in England and Wales, company number 06966878,

registered office address:

Anno's Africa Limited,
81 Iverna Court,
London W8 6TU.

The charity was set up in memory of Anno Birkin (www.anno.co.uk) a young, gifted writer and musician who died in a car crash in 2001, just one month short of his 21st birthday. It was founded by his parents, and initially funded by proceeds from a book of his poetry, Who Said the Race Is Over, with the aim of offering less privileged children some of the creative opportunities that Anno himself enjoyed.

Who We Are:

Bee Gilbert
Bee is a photographer, specializing in portraits, but she has also had many years experience in film stills, theatre front-of-house and reportage. She has worked as a script reader, film researcher and writer, and produced The Cement Garden, the award-winning film based on Ian McEwan's novel.

After the death of her son Anno, Bee helped set up and direct the charity S.A.F.E. (Sponsored Arts for Education), under whose banner ANNO'S AFRICA has been running since its inception in 2006. Bee is the director of ANNO'S AFRICA, responsible for policy, the practical running of the workshops in Kenya, and for fund-raising events in the UK.

Trustees:

Andrew Birkin
Andrew is a feature film and television screenwriter and director. His many credits include The Final Conflict, The Name of the Rose, Joan of Arc, Perfume, and The Lost Boys television trilogy for the BBC about the author J M Barrie, which won him the Royal Television Society's Writer's Award. He wrote and directed the film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel The Cement Garden, which won him Best Director at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival, and Sredni Vashtar, which won a BAFTA award and an Oscar nomination. He is also the author of J M Barrie & The Lost Boys. Andrew has four children, one of whom is Anno.

Fiona Clark
Fiona is currently Interim Chief Executive of Get Connected (www.getconnected.org.uk), a charity providing free confidential helplines for young people under 25 and signposting them to the help they need. Prior to that, Fiona built a successful career as a theatre producer, running London's Bush Theatre for eight years, specialising in commissioning and producing new work. Her theatre work includes West End transfers, national and international touring, cross art form festival collaboration, and management of arts organisations. In 2008, Fiona made a career change to project management and was CEO of the global Earthrace project, managing their successful attempt to break the world circumnavigation record in a 'green' powerboat. The project promoted environmental issues around the world (and was a big adventure!)

Allan Corduner
Allan Corduner is an accomplished actor, whose TV work include The Way We Live Now, Fat Friends and Whistleblowers. On film he is best remembered as Sir Arthur Sullivan in Mike Leigh's award-winning Topsy Turvy, and most recently appeared in Defiance with Daniel Craig. Another highly acclaimed collaboration with Mike Leigh was Two Thousand Years at the National Theatre. Before that, Allan had already enjoyed success with Caryl Churchill's Serious Money both in London's West End and on Broadway, and in the musical Titanic, again on Broadway. He has just finished playing Alfieri in a hit West End run of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. Allan is also a very skilful pianist, and, as his roles in Topsy Turvy and Titanic testify, music is very close to his heart; just as much as storytelling through plays and poetry, he believes music can be a great healer and a powerful tool with which to educate young people.

Emma Frost
Emma is a London based screenwriter, whose credits include Channel 4's Shameless, original BBC film Consuming Passion, and Bush Theatre play Airsick. Prior to becoming a writer, Emma trained as an artist and spent several years working in theatre design and programming. As well as being a trustee, Emma works alongside Bee Gilbert on a voluntary basis as the head of the Theatre Studies programme, which covers masks and costume making as well as set and prop design. She will also be teaching a screenwriting module in 2009 . Additionally Emma helps with the day-to-day running of the charity, dealing particularly with policy, publicity, events and fundraising. .

Hayley Mills
Hayley began her acting career at the age of 12, and within ten years had risen to become one of the world's biggest movie stars. She was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1961 for her performance in the iconic Pollyanna, before going on to make six movies for Walt Disney, including family classics like The Parent Trap, In Search of the Castaways, and That Darn Cat. There followed also a career in theatre, starting with Peter Pan and going on to such classics as The Wild Duck, The Importance of Being Ernest and The Three Sisters, as well as a recent American tour of The King & I. Hayley is the daughter of screen legend John Mills, with whom she acted in numerous films including her 1958 screen debut Tiger Bay, the Boulting Brothers' 1968 film The Family Way, and The Chalk Garden. In 1963 she starred as Kathy in the original and much-loved movie adaptation of Whistle Down the Wind, which was based on the novel by her writer mother, Mary Hayley Bell. Hayley has a special connection to Kenya after filming the TV series Flame Trees of Thika there in 1980, and is now back in Africa working on the ITV family drama Wild at Heart.

Deepak Nambisan
Deepak is a barrister at Fountains Court Chambers, a leading set of chambers in the Temple where he specialises in various types of commercial disputes. He is also a trustee-elect of the University House Legal Advice Centre in Bethnal Green London.

Louise Norman
Louise is a television journalist with a particular interest in foreign affairs. She has made programmes in Soweto, Sudan and Kenya, and is excited to be involved with the work of ANNO'S AFRICA.

Sarah Radclyffe
Sarah co-founded the film company Working Title in 1984 with Tim Bevan, and whilst there produced several films including My Beautiful Laundrette, Wish You Were Here and A World Apart. In 1993 she left to pursue a more independent career and set up her own company, Sarah Radclyffe Productions. Since then she has produced or executive produced, amongst others, Second Best, Cousin Bette, Les Miserables, The War Zone, Ratcatcher, There's Only One Jimmy Grimble, Love's Brother, How About You, The Edge of Love and the forthcoming Cirque du Freak. Sarah served on the board of Channel 4 and the BFI between 1997 and 1999 and the UK Film Council from 1999 to 2004. She is really looking forward to being actively involved in ANNO'S AFRICA and, having two teenage sons, relishes the opportunity of getting their generation involved in such an exciting venture.

Karen Rose
Karen is a director of Sweet Talk Productions. She began her career in Theatre PR before joining BBC Radio Drama to work in casting and promotions. She left the BBC in 1997 to become a freelance producer, making documentaries, drama and comedy for Radios 4 and 5 and through the Radio Drama Department, BBC Bristol and Pier Productions in Brighton, for whom she also freelanced as development executive between 1998 and 2000. In 2001 she launched her own independent company, Sweet Talk Productions and has supplied drama, readings, comedy and documentaries to the BBC Radio's 3, 4, 5 and World Service since 2002 . Karen became aware of ANNO'S AFRICA whilst making a drama documentary for BBC Radio 4 which interwove the stories of writer J M Barrie and Anno Birkin, the son of Bee Gilbert and Andrew Birkin. She followed it up with a second drama documentary, based on the experiences of Billy Scherer (Anno's great friend and sole survivor of their band KjD) and Lulu, a teenager from the Mathare Slum, who came together to run music workshops for a seven week creative programme, set up in Anno's name for the kids of the Majengo slum in Nairobi.

Ian Warwick
After achieving a top degree in English and Politics at York University, Ian taught English, Politics, Psychology and Media at an inner city comprehensive for eighteen years. Then in 2000, he became Gifted &Talented Strand Coordinator at Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster, responsible for developing and implementing the strategic vision and direction for gifted education across the two top rated London Local Authorities, with a key focus on progression to Higher Education. During this time he developed the nationally acclaimed Advanced Learning Centre Model across several London Boroughs.

He is currently the Director of The REAL Project, a national project for the Department for Children, Schools and Families which works to improve the provision of G&T education for BME and EAL students. He has also written for the National Strategies Lead Teacher Training and Guidance materials on both Exceptionally Able and Disadvantaged students. Ian has published extensively in the field of education, with many articles and chapters in national and international educational journals. His chief areas of interest are urban education, disadvantaged and underachieving students, e learning, exceptional ability, critical thinking, professional development and the issues surrounding BME and EAL education. He has written worldwide collaborative research papers, and key noted at National, European, Far Eastern and World conferences. He is also a consultant editor for Gifted Education International and is a member of the Tower Group, an independent, worldwide think tank of G&T experts.

The UK Team:

Visual Arts: Marie Steinmann & Joni Hurst
Visual Arts Consultant: Karen Birkin
Music/Guitar: Billy Scherer
Circus: Natalia Colville & Nathan Martin
Dance: Anna Nygh
Theatre Studies: Emma Frost
Film Studies: Abbie Sharpe
Administration: Lydia Butler
Book-keeping: Tina Tomlin
Website: Dafydd Brown
Documentary footage on YouTube: Marco Wyndham, Andrew Birkin & Ned Birkin
Photography: Bee Gilbert, Karen Birkin, Andrew Birkin, Marie Steinman, Ned Birkin, Anna Nygh & Jesse Loncraine

Click here to see videos of ANNO'S AFRICA on youtube.

Guest Master-class Trainers:

Art: Francesca Wilkinson-Shaw (general arts), Stephen Gillon (ceramics & sculpture) and Olivia Blond (textile design/art)
Dance: Jessica Thirolle (movement psychotherapist), Paul Gunter and Fraser Morrison; two volunteers from the world famous “Stomp” troupe

Future Master-class Trainers:

Charlotte Wiseman (ceramics, textiles and costume design)
Billy Kiagwa (sculpture)
Bassline Circus (stilts, Chinese pole and ariel trapeze & silk)

Patrons include: Sir Ian Holm, Alan Rickman, Joanna Lumley, Ruby Wax, Bruce Robinson, Greta Scaachi, Isa and Mario Mangili, Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Joel Grey, Stephen Frears, John Sessions, Samantha Morton, Johnny Borrell, Leo Davis, Norma Heyman, Lady Anne Lambton, Anne Queensberry, Anne Rothenstein, Sophie de Stempel, Tom Tykwer, Adrian Dunbar, Samantha Henderson, Jess Walters, Allira Cornell, Lou Doillon, Kate Barry, Harry Holm, Sandra Kamen, Sharon Maughan, Trevor Eve, Lesley Joseph and Lindy King