In 1982 and 1983 she contributed a regular full-page strip to "Harper's Magazine" in America. In 1987 Simmonds turned her hand to writing, as well as illustrating, children's books. "Fred", the story of a cat with a secret life, was later filmed as "Famous Fred" and nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and several BAFTAs. Her other children's books include "Lulu and the Flying Babies", "The Chocolate Wedding" and "Lavender". In the late 1990s Posy returned to the pages of "The Guardian" with "Gemma Bovery", which reworked the story of Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" into a satirical tale of English expatriates in France. It was published as a graphic novel in 1999 and was made into a feature film, directed by Anne Fontaine in 2014. "Literary Life" appeared in "The Guardian"'s "Review" section on Saturdays from November 2002 until December 2004. One collected edition of "Literary Life" cartoons has been published. Posy's 2005-6 "Guardian" series, "Tamara Drewe", made its début in the Review section on 17 September 2005, in the first Saturday paper after the "Guardian"'s relaunch in the Berliner format. It ended, with episode 109 and an epilogue, on 2 December 2006 and was published as a book in 2007. In 2010 the story was adapted as a feature film of the same name, directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Moira Buffini, starring Gemma Arterton. She drew the illustrations for the opening titles of the BBC's 2007 production of Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford", and for "Midsummer Nights", a volume of opera-related short stories by prominent writers published in 2009 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival. She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for services to the newspaper industry. After being nominated already in 2001 for "Gemma Bovery", Simmonds won the 2009 Prix de la critique of the French Association of comics critics and journalists for "Tamara Drewe".