Francesca Simon was born in the United States and attended both Yale and Oxford universities. For ten years she worked as a freelance journalist. She now writes full-time and has had many books published including the best-selling Horrid Henry series and many picture books. Francesca is constantly in demand at bookshops, schools and book festivals all over the country where she talks to children about her books. She lives in North London with her family.
Horrid Henry books and audio have sold over 15 million copies in the UK alone and CITV have made a hugely popular cartoon series based on the nation's favourite naughty boy. 2008 saw a Horrid Henry exhibition at Seven Stories, Newcastle called Up To Mischief With Horrid Henry.
Horrid Henry Robs the Bank was shortlisted for the Children's Book of the Year award at the 2009 British Book Awards, the third consecutive year of nomination, following a win in 2008.
Francesca Simon is the third most borrowed children's author from UK libraries and Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend was the most borrowed children's title in 2009!
Francesca Simon on Francesca Simon:
"I've always seen my Horrid Henry books as westerns for kids. Henry is an outlaw, who behaves dreadfully, yet often triumphs. Just as adults like reading about people on the edge, so kids get a thrill from a child who always acts on impulse and never worries about the consequences.
I got the idea for the books when a friend asked me to write a book about a horrid child. Horrid Henry was born on the spot. I immediately saw a truculent little boy, the despair of his well-meaning liberal parents. I was also interested in exploring sibling rivalry, which I know something about as the eldest of four, and families where the parents decide that one child is 'good' and the other 'bad', which is how Perfect Peter came about. Soon Henry took on a vigorous life of his own, aided by the bossy madam next door Moody Margaret, who is an amalgam of myself and how I imagine Margaret Thatcher might have been as a child.
I started writing children's books in 1989 after the birth of my son, Josh. Suddenly all I was reading was books for children, and I started, to my surprise, to get ideas. One day we'd been reading lots of animal noises books, and he asked me what noise a caterpillar made. I thought 'wouldn't it be great to do an animal noise voice of all the unusual animals kids see in books?' That became my first book - But What Does the Hippopotamus say?"
Here are the Horrid Henry books in order of publication:
Horrid Henry
Horrid Henry and the Secret Club
Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy
Horrid Henry's Nits
Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick
Horrid Henry's Haunted House
Horrid Henry and the Mummy's Curse
Horrid Henry's Revenge
Horrid Henry and the Bogey Babysitter
Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb
Horrid Henry's Underpants
Horrid Henry Meets the Queen
Horrid Henry and the Mega-Mean Time Machine
Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend
Horrid Henry's Christmas Cracker
Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman
Horrid Henry Robs the Bank
Horrid Henry Wakes the Dead
Horrid Henry Rocks (coming Sept 10)
Here are the joke books:
Horrid Henry's Joke Book
Horrid Henry's Jolly Joke Book
Horrid Henry's Mighty Joke Book
Horrid Henry Versus Moody Margaret
Horrid Henry's Hilariously Horrid Joke Book
Moody Margaret Strikes Back
The Early Reader Books:
Don't Be Horrid Henry
Horrid Henry's Birthday Party
Horrid Henry's Holiday
Horrid Henry's Underpants
Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick
Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend
Horrid Henry's Nits
Horrid Henry and Moody Margaret
Colour Books:
Horrid Henry's Big Bad Book
Horrid Henry's Wicked Ways
Horrid Henry's Evil Enemies
Horrid Henry Rules the World
Horrid Henry's House of Horrors
Horrid Henry's Dreadful Deeds
Horrid Henry Shows Who's Boss (coming 7th October 2010)
Book & DVD packs
Horrid Henry tricks the tooth fairy
Horrid Henry and the mega-mean time machine
Activity Books:
Horrid Henry's Brainbusters
Horrid Henry's Headscratchers
Horrid Henry's Mindbenders
Horrid Henry's Colouring Book
Horrid Henry's Puzzle Book
Horrid Henry's Sticker Book
Horrid Henry's Mad Mazes
Horrid Henry's Wicked Wordsearches
Horrid Henry's Classroom Chaos
Horrid Henry's Holiday Havoc
Horrid Henry Runs Riot
Horrid Henry's Bumper Fun
Horrid Henry's Crazy Crosswords
Gift Packs:
Horrid Henry's Football Kit
Horrid Henry's Horrid Holidays
Horrid Henry's Christmas Present
Coming soon...
Horrid Henry's Annual 2011 - 5th August 2010
How to survive Christmas Chaos with Horrid Henry - 4th November 2010
Horrid Henry's Utterly Wicked Factbook: Bodies - F
eb 2011
