Frances Hardinge

Frances Hardinge (born 1973) is a British children's writer. Her debut novel, Fly by Night, won the 2006 Branford Boase Award and was listed as one of the School Library Journal Best Books. She has also been shortlisted for and received a number of other awards for her novels and short stories.

Early life and education

Hardinge was born in 1973 in Brighton, England, and dreamed of writing at the age of four. She studied English at Somerville College, Oxford and was the founder member of a writers' workshop there.

Career

Her writing career started after she won a short story magazine competition. Shortly after winning she wrote her debut novel, Fly by Night, in her spare time and showed it to Macmillan Publishers after pressure from a friend. It was published in 2005, and was listed as one of the School Library Journal Best Books and won the Branford Boase Award.

Her 2015 novel The Lie Tree won the 2015 Costa Book Award Book of the Year, the only children's book to do so besides Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass in 2001.

Hardinge was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.

Personal life

Hardinge is often seen wearing a black hat and enjoys dressing in old-fashioned clothing.

Works

Novels

Fly by Night (2005)

Verdigris Deep (2007); US title, Well Witched

Gullstruck Island (2009); US title, The Lost Conspiracy

Twilight Robbery (2011); US title, Fly Trap – sequel to Fly by Night

A Face Like Glass (2012)

Cuckoo Song (2014)

The Lie Tree (2015)

A Skinful of Shadows (September 2017)

Deeplight (October 2019)

Unraveller (September 2022)

Short fiction

Hardinge has written several short stories published in magazines and anthologies, as well as two that were published as standalone books.

"Shining Man", The Dream Zone 8 (Jan 2001)

"Communion", Wordplay 1 (Spring 2002)

"Captive Audience", Piffle 7 (Oct 2002)

"Bengal Rose", Scribble 20 (Spring 2003)

"Black Grass", All Hallows 43 (Summer 2007)

"Halfway House", Alchemy 3 (Jan 2006)

"Behind The Mirror", serialised in First News (2007)

"Payment Due", in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Random House, 2012)

"Flawless", in Twisted Winter, ed. Catherine Butler (Black, 2013)

"Hayfever", Subterranean, Winter 2014 (Dec 2013)

"Blind Eye", The Outcast Hours, ed. Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin (Solaris, 2019)

"God's Eye", in Mystery & Mayhem, (Egmont Publishing, 2016)

Island of Whispers (2023); illustrated by Emily Gravett

The Forest of a Thousand Eyes (2024); illustrated by Emily Gravett