Latest News

Join Team Monstrous Child! #YA10

Francesca’s novel The Monstrous Child is shortlisted for the YA Book Prize which is absolutely fantastic news. Each week a different shortlisted story is being championed on twitter. Why not get involved and support The Monstrous Child from 8-9pm on Tuesday 9th May by joining #TeamSimon and using the hashtag #YA10. Follow @yabookprize on twitter […]

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The Monstrous Child shortlisted for YA Book Prize

Francesca’s first YA novel The Monstrous Child has been shortlisted for the prestigious YA Book Prize. The winner will be announced at a special event at Hay Festival on 1st June. Other books on the shortlist are: Malorie Blackman’s Chasing the Stars Crongton Knights by Alex Wheatle The Call by Peadar O’Guilin The Graces by […]

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Storm Doris couldn’t stop Francesca!

On 23rd February Francesca was due to appear on Blue Peter to talk about World Book Day and her special £1 book, Horrid Henry Funny Fact Files. But Storm Doris had other ideas… The UK was ravaged by winds of up to 90mph which meant all trains in and out of London Euston were cancelled. […]

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Francesca the UK’s 4th most borrowed author in January

The PLR (Public Lending Right) figures have been released, and show that Horrid Henry and Francesca’s other stories are just as popular as ever. Francesca is one of 4 children’s authors whose books were borrowed over 1 million times last year. PLR means that every time a book is borrowed from a public library the […]

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Francesca – and Louis too – join Libraries March

Francesca joined over 2000 people including the Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell, former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen and many fellow writers and children’s authors at a march to protest about library closures. She took her dog Louis with her. Louis looks as if he’s enjoying his trip into central London!

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The Monstrous Child

The Monstrous Child nominated for the Carnegie Medal

Francesca’s novel The Monstrous Child has been nominated for the prestigious CILIP Carnegie Medal. Every year children’s librarians award the Carnegie Medal for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The Carnegie Medal, and the Kate Greenaway Medal, which is given to an outstanding illustrated book for young people, are rightly […]

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Celebrating Bookshops on #BookshopDay

Francesca is an enthusiastic champion of bookshops on the high street. This Saturday bookshops in the UK and Ireland are celebrating ‘Bookshop Day’. As she says, ‘I’ve discovered so many wonderful books browsing in bookshops, so it’s wonderful to have a day celebrating how brilliant bookshops are. Horrid Henry took off because booksellers recommended them to […]

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