TV and radio interviews and media coverage

Latest Reviews

  • Salka is reviewed in The Herald, 3rd April 2025, ‘The novel speeds through your fingers. This is a book you will finish in a day if you’re on holiday. I curled up on a rainy afternoon and was swallowed whole by the storytelling until the last page, very much seduced by the mysterious Salka.’Reviewer Neil MacKay continues, Simon ‘has taken a mythological being and made her deeply human – so human, indeed, that Salka’s story speaks direct to the reader’s own conscience.’
  • Salka is reviewed in The Daily Mail, 21st April 2025,  ‘a meticulously crafted and exquisite fable where otherness and wonder collide with the harsh realities of boring old life’.

Audio Interviews

  • BBC Radio 3 Music Matters interview with Francesca and Gavin Higgins talking about Hel one of the characters in their opera The Monstrous Child – 23nd February 2019 – Click here to listen to audio (start at 2:39 runs to 10.04)
  • BBC Radio 4 Today Programme interview with Francesca – a feature on why villains in children’s books are often boys  –  22nd January 2018 – Click here to listen to audio (start at 2:51:34) and watch a clip of the interview here 
  • BBC Radio 4 Front Row interview Love to Read – a feature on discovering forgotten classics with Francesca 4th November 2016 – Click here to listen to audio
  • BBC Radio 4 You and Yours interview What Inspired You To Read – a feature on reading for pleasure including an interview with Francesca 16th February 2016 – Click here to listen to audio
  • BBC Radio 2 with Chris Evans Breakfast show 20th January 2015 – Click here to listen to audio
  • BBC Radio 2 Arts Show with Joe Haddow at the Hay Festival 2014 – Click here to listen to audio (start at 38:51)
  • BBC Radio 2 with Chris Evans Breakfast show – Click here to listen to audio clip
  • BBC Radio 2 with Simon Mayo Drivetime – Click here to listen to the audio clip
  • BBC Radio 2 with Steve Wright in the Afternoon- Click here to listen to the audio clip
  • Francesca Simon’s Desert Island Discs on the BBC iPlayer – Click here to listen to the audio clip
  • BBC Radio 4 Front Row – Click here to listen to the audio clip
  • Justonemorebook.com podcast – Click here to listen to the audio clip
  • BBC Radio 2 – Click here to listen to the audio clip
  • BBC Radio 4 Women’s hour – Click here to listen to the audio clip

 Video Interviews

  • Francesca Simon on Channel 4 Weekend Kitchen 31st May 2014 – click here to watch programme
  • Francesca Simon appears on World book Day video. She explains how to use words to bring characters to life, a talk on World Book Day. Please click here to see the video, and you will be able to see Francesca Simon from 40 minutes in, for 5 mins.
  • The chess pieces that inspired Horrid Henry author – Read more on the article on “The Telegraph” website.
  • Horrid Henry Rocks by Francesca Simon – Click here to Get ready to ROCK with Horrid Henry and the Killer Boy Rats!
  • Hay festival bookshop challenge – Click here to watch Francesca on the Hay festival bookshop challenge, to find a secondhand jewel for just ten pounds
  • London Book fair Podcast – Click here to listen to Francesca speaking at the London Book Fair 2008
  • Helping Hercules – Click here to watch the video clip
  • Horrid Henry’s Stinkbomb – Click here to watch the video clip
  • Horrid Henry’s Underpants – Click here to watch the video clip
  • Francesca Simon and Miranda Richardson interviewed at the Edinburgh Book Festival 2008.