S.F Said author page

S. F. Said biography

S. F. Said is a British author of children’s and young adult fiction, born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1967. He moved to London with his mother at the age of two and has lived in the UK ever since. His full name is Sabah Falah Said, reflecting his Middle Eastern heritage, which includes Iraqi, Egyptian, Kurdish, and Circassian ancestry. He studied law at the University of Cambridge before transitioning into a career in writing and journalism.

His debut novel, Varjak Paw, was published in 2003 by David Fickling Books. The story follows a Mesopotamian Blue cat named Varjak who ventures outside his sheltered home to learn the “Seven Skills of the Way” and confront a mysterious threat. The book won the 2003 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and has been adapted into a stage play and an opera. A film adaptation was in development as of 2006.

The sequel, The Outlaw Varjak Paw (2005), continued Varjak’s adventures and won the 2007 Blue Peter Book of the Year. Said’s third novel, Phoenix (2013), is a science fiction epic for older readers. It was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and was selected to represent the UK on the IBBY Honour List for 2016.

His fourth book, Tyger (2022), is set in an alternate 21st-century London where the abolition of slavery was never achieved. The novel won the 2023 British Book Award for Children’s Fiction and was also named The Week Junior Book Awards’ Children’s Book of the Year for Older Readers. It was Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month in September 2023.

Illustrated by Dave McKean, all of Said’s novels have been praised for their imaginative storytelling and have been translated into multiple languages. Said has written extensively about children’s literature for publications such as The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. He served as the Writer in Residence at BookTrust from March to September 2023, advocating for literacy and reading for pleasure among young readers.

Website and social media

• Website, events and visits
• Twitter

Book lists featuring S.F. Said