15 Francesca Simon Facts

Here are twenty facts about Francesca Simon, the author of the Horrid Henry books. You’ll probably know some of this information already, but hopefully you will learn something new, too.

• Francesca Simon was born on 23rd February 1955 in St Louis, Missouri (United States).

• She went to Yale university in the US and Oxford in the UK. She studied Old English.
• Francesca went on to become a journalist and wrote for the Guardian, the Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph.
• Francesca Simon has had more than 50 books published.
• Her book Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman won the prize for Children’s Book of the Year at the 2008 British Book Awards.
• Francesca Simon has a Tibetan Spaniel called Shanti.
• It takes about four months to write each Horrid Henry book.
• Francesca Simon likes writing but hates starting a new piece of work. She says that her favourite part of the writing process is when she’s improving a rough draft.
• Her favourite authors as a child were Edward Eager and Beverley Cleary.
• Her current favourite author is Anthony Trollope.
• Francesca’s first book was called Papa Forgot and was published in 1983.
• She has a grown-up son called Joshua.
• Francesca started to write books full-time in 1989.
• She writes her books in the attic of her Victorian house in London.
• She usually works in silence.

Check out Francesca Simon’s website, or learn more about other famous children’s authors.