A.F. Steadman is an author from the UK, best known for her debut children’s novel, Skandar and the Unicorn Thief.
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Facts About A.F. Steadman
- A.F. Steadman grew up in the village of Chillenden in the county of Kent, UK.
- She attended King’s School in Canterbury.
- As a child, she dreamed of being an author, and she wrote her first book at the age of 13. It was about pirates and spies.
- Her parents divorced when she was 13, and she was raised by her mother.
- She has two brothers.
- Before becoming a published author, A.F. Steadman worked in the legal profession.
- In 2017, she took a Creative Writing Masters course at Cambridge University.
- Her favourite books to read when she was a child were those full of magic and adventure.
- Her Skandar and the Unicorn Thief was inspired by an image in her mind of a boy flying a ferocious unicorn.
- Her first name is Annabel.
- At the age of four, she developed type 1 diabetes, and she had to have kidney surgery when she was nine.
- The advance she received from her publisher Simon & Schuster for her planned series (the first book being Skandar and the Unicorn Thief) was thought to be in the 7-figure range and was believed to be the largest advance ever made to a debut children’s author.
- She really enjoyed reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, and Elizabeth Kay’s The Divide.
- She also liked the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, the Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin, and The Song of the Lioness books by Tamora Pierce.
- She is a fan of Neil Gaiman.
I’m a really visual writer. If I can’t ‘see’ it I struggle to write it. It has to be able to play out as if it’s a scene.
A.F. Steadman
