Henrietta Branford author page

Henrietta Branford biography

Henrietta Branford was a British writer of children’s fiction whose books included Royal Blunder, Dimanche Diller, The Fated Sky and Fire, Bed and Bone. Her first book, Royal Blunder, was published when she was 40, after she had worked in several other jobs.

Dimanche Diller, about a girl coping alone after the deaths of her parents, won a Smarties Prize in 1994. Two further Dimanche Diller stories followed before Branford wrote longer historical fiction, including The Fated Sky, a Viking story, and Fire, Bed and Bone, set during the Peasants’ Revolt in medieval England and narrated through the viewpoint of an old hunting dog.

Fire, Bed and Bone was published by Walker Books and has an age range of 9 to 11 in a later Walker Books edition. Fire, Bed and Bone won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 1997, won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize in 1998, and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 1997.