EastEnders star Steve McFadden and children's author Anne-Marie Conway back school's fund to build library

A children’s author has pledged to donate the profits from her latest book to help a London school build a new library.

Anne-Marie Conway will give money from the first 5,000 copies of Unicorn Girl to the Archer Academy in East Finchley, which is trying to raise £250,000 for its library.

Ms Conway’s son was one of the first children to go to the free school when it opened in 2013. She has written seven books, including the Star Makers Club series, as well as Tangled Secrets and Forbidden Friends.

She said: “My son has had an incredible education at the Archer and I wanted to do all I could to help.

“I know it’s relatively unusual for an author to donate the profits of a new book to charity, but it’s a cause that’s close to my heart and we should do all we can to support school libraries.”

The fundraising campaign, which launched officially today, is also supported by EastEnders actor Steve McFadden, whose 14-year-old daughter Mollie goes to the school. The 59-year-old, who plays Phil Mitchell in the soap, said he would not have the career he has without libraries.

McFadden, right, said he left school with no qualifications and the route out of a life working on building sites and markets was drama school. “I applied for all these drama schools but I had to have all these speeches together — a Shakespeare and a modern piece,” he said. “I didn’t own books, I wasn’t terribly well-read. But I went to libraries and cut and pasted speeches together and flicked through pages and found stuff that grabbed me and learnt off by heart.

“I auditioned for drama school and got in to Rada and the rest is history… I wouldn’t be where I was today if it wasn’t for the fact I could wander into Swiss Cottage library and flick through books and find something that worked for me and got me into drama school.

“I was 25 and had no qualifications … I wouldn’t have known where to begin if I didn’t have a library to source that material.”

He added that the Archer Academy had been fantastic for Mollie and he has donated to the campaign. “Without them my daughter wouldn’t have had a school to go to … I wanted to subscribe to that effort and willpower that they have shown by creating the school,” he said.

Headteacher Lucy Harrison said: “We hope that our parents, prospective parents and the wider community will join us in raising the money so we can create the library and resource centre that our students deserve.”