Francesca Simon

Francesca Isabella Simon MBE (born 23 February 1955) is an American-born British author who resides in North London. She is most famous for writing the Horrid Henry and Evil Evie series of children's books.

Francesca Simon MBE
Born	Francesca Isabella Simon (1955-02-23) 23 February 1955 (age 70) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
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.com

She is the daughter of screenwriter and playwright Mayo Simon^[2] (not to be confused with Simon Mayo, a British radio DJ).

Biography

Simon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. 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, 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 1989). Simon got the idea for the Horrid Henry books when a friend asked her to write a story about a horrid child. She also wanted to write about sibling rivalry and families where one child was considered "perfect" and the other "horrid". Many of the Horrid Henry stories were inspired by events from Simon's life, including her childhood, and those of people that she knew, with additional ideas coming from her imagination.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

Simon was inspired to write by Anthony Trollope.^[12] 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 series Horrid Henry series, which has sold more than 25 million copies, and has been translated into 24 languages.^[13][10]

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.^[14]

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.^[15]

Selected works

• Horrid Henry series, illustrated by Tony Ross, Orion Books, 1994 to 2019
• Simon, Francesca (1995). The Topsy Turvies. Illustrated by Keren Ludlow (1st ed.). Dial Press. ISBN 978-0803719699.
• Simon, Francesca (2012). The Topsy-Turvies (Early Reader). Illustrated by Emily Bolam. Orion Children's. ISBN 978-1444005127.
• Simon, Francesca (2014). The Lost Gods. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1846685668. – longlisted for the Guardian Prize, 2014
• Simon, Francesca (2017). The Monstrous Child (Paperback ed.). Faber & Faber Children's. ISBN 978-0571330270.
• Simon, Francesca (2017). Hack and Whack. Illustrated by Charlotte Cotterill. Faber & Faber Children's. ISBN 978-0571328710.

Honours and awards

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.

Simon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to literature.^[16]