Frances Hardinge author page

Frances Hardinge biography

Frances Hardinge is a British author known for her work in children’s and young adult fiction. She was born in Brighton, England, and spent her childhood in a small village in Kent. Hardinge attended Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied English Language and Literature.

Her debut novel, Fly by Night, was published in 2005 and won the Branford Boase Award in 2006. The book was also shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Hardinge’s second novel, Verdigris Deep (published as Well Witched in the United States), was released in 2007.

In 2015, Hardinge published The Lie Tree, which received critical acclaim and won the prestigious Costa Book of the Year award in 2015. This made her the first children’s author to win the award since Philip Pullman in 2001. The novel also won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Other notable works by Hardinge include Gullstruck Island (2009), A Face Like Glass (2012), Cuckoo Song (2014), and A Skinful of Shadows (2017). Her books are often characterised by intricate plots, rich language, and imaginative settings.