External links
- Official website
- Francesca Simon at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Francesca Simon at Library of Congress
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Francesca Simon | |
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| Born | Francesca Isabella Simon 23 February 1955 |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Yale University; Jesus College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Years active | 1963–present [1] |
| Notable work | Horrid Henry Evil Evie |
| Spouse | Martin Stamp |
| Children | 1 |
| Father | Mayo Simon |
| Relatives | Anne Simon (sister) |
| Writing career | |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Website | francescasimon |
Francesca Isabella Simon MBE (born 23 February 1955) is an American-born British author. She is most famous for writing the Horrid Henry and Evil Evie series of children's books.
She is the daughter of screenwriter and playwright Mayo Simon [2] (not to be confused with Simon Mayo, a British radio DJ).
Simon was born on 23 February 1955 in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up in California and studied at Yale University and Jesus College, Oxford, where she majored in medieval studies and Old English. Simon worked as a journalist, writing for The Sunday Times , The Guardian , Mail on Sunday , The Daily Telegraph and Vogue (US). [3] She is married to an English husband, Martin Stamp, and has one son called Joshua (born August 1989). [4]
Simon was inspired to write by Anthony Trollope. [5] She began to write children's books full-time in 1989. Simon is one of the UK's best-selling children's writers; [2] she has published more than 50 different books, including her most popular Horrid Henry series, which has sold more than 21 million copies and has been translated into 31 languages. [6] [7] [8] [9] Simon got the idea for Horrid Henry when she was asked by Judith Elliott, an editor at Orion Books, to write a story about a horrid child. [10] [11] [7] [12] She also wanted to write about sibling rivalry and families where one child was considered "perfect" and the other "horrid". [13] [14] [8] Inspiration also came from Cain and Abel, Oedipus Rex, Seinfeld , and Simon's own childhood, growing up in California the eldest of four siblings (including her sister Anne), desperately wanting to be an only child. They lived in small houses with confined spaces, with their father Mayo writing upstairs and telling them to be quiet. [15] [16] [17] Many of the books' stories were inspired by events from Simon's life and those of people that she knew, with additional ideas coming from her imagination. [13] [18] [19]
Simon lives in London with her husband, Martin. Their Tibetan spaniel, Shanti, is memorialised in the short story "Shanti" that Simon wrote for inclusion in the Paws and Whiskers anthology by fellow author Jacqueline Wilson published in February 2014. [20]
In the spring of 2019 the Royal Opera House staged an opera based on Simon's book The Monstrous Child, about the Norse god of the dead, Hel, as an angry teenager. The opera is composed by Gavin Higgins with libretto by Simon. [21]
In 2008, Simon won the British Book Award for British Book Award The Children's Book of the Year with Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman. She is the first American to win this award. [22] [23] [5]
Simon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to literature. [24]
The idea for Horrid Henry came about when an illustrator friend of Francesca Simon's asked her to write a book about a naughty child, as she was fed up of drawing angelic children! As the eldest of four children, Simon also wanted to write about the relationships between brothers and sisters, and so she created Perfect Peter. Although she says she adores Peter, Simon admits that Henry is most people's favourite; he is the "imp inside everyone" and of course it's "sometimes great to let that imp out"!
I get my ideas from things that happen to me, or to people I know, or from my imagination. I think of ordinary situations, like birthday parties or getting nits, and then add a "horrid" twist. So if my son, Josh, has to have an injection, I think of how Henry would behave.
Published today is Paws and Whiskers a special anthology of the very best stories about cats and dogs from the world of children's literature, chosen by my fellow author, and Battersea Cats and Dogs Home patron Jacqueline Wilson. This book is very special to me because it includes a piece about Shanti, my wonderful Tibetan spaniel, who very sadly died last autumn. That's Shanti on the cover, in the bottom right hand corner!
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