Francesca Isabella SimonMBE (born 23 February 1955) is an American-born British author. She is most famous for writing the Horrid Henry and Evil Evie series of children's books.
She is the daughter of screenwriter and playwright Mayo Simon[2] (not to be confused with Simon Mayo, a British radio DJ).
Simon was inspired to write by Anthony Trollope.[5] She began to write children's books full-time in 1989. Simon is one of the UK's best-selling children's writers;[2] she has published more than 50 different books, including her most popular Horrid Henry series, which has sold more than 21 million copies and has been translated into 31 languages.[6][7][8][9] Simon got the idea for Horrid Henry when she was asked by Judith Elliott, an editor at Orion Books, to write a story about a horrid child.[10][11][7][12] She also wanted to write about sibling rivalry and families where one child was considered "perfect" and the other "horrid".[13][14][8] Inspiration also came from Cain and Abel, Oedipus Rex, Seinfeld, and Simon's own childhood, growing up in California the eldest of four siblings (including her sister Anne), desperately wanting to be an only child. They lived in small houses with confined spaces, with their father Mayo writing upstairs and telling them to be quiet.[15][16][17] Many of the books' stories were inspired by events from Simon's life and those of people that she knew, with additional ideas coming from her imagination.[13][18][19]
Simon lives in London with her husband, Martin. Their Tibetan spaniel, Shanti, is memorialised in the short story "Shanti" that Simon wrote for inclusion in the Paws and Whiskers anthology by fellow author Jacqueline Wilson published in February 2014.[20]
In the spring of 2019 the Royal Opera House staged an opera based on Simon's book The Monstrous Child, about the Norse god of the dead, Hel, as an angry teenager. The opera is composed by Gavin Higgins with libretto by Simon.[21]
^"Horrid Henry – Live and Horrid! - Teachers' Resource Pack"(PDF). 2008. Retrieved 27 August 2024. The idea for Horrid Henry came about when an illustrator friend of Francesca Simon's asked her to write a book about a naughty child, as she was fed up of drawing angelic children! As the eldest of four children, Simon also wanted to write about the relationships between brothers and sisters, and so she created Perfect Peter. Although she says she adores Peter, Simon admits that Henry is most people's favourite; he is the "imp inside everyone" and of course it's "sometimes great to let that imp out"!
^"Here are the answers to some of your questions..."(PDF). 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2024. I get my ideas from things that happen to me, or to people I know, or from my imagination. I think of ordinary situations, like birthday parties or getting nits, and then add a "horrid" twist. So if my son, Josh, has to have an injection, I think of how Henry would behave.
^Simon, Francesca (13 February 2014). "Supporting Battersea Cats and Dogs Home". www.francescasimon.com. Retrieved 10 June 2014. Published today is Paws and Whiskers a special anthology of the very best stories about cats and dogs from the world of children's literature, chosen by my fellow author, and Battersea Cats and Dogs Home patron Jacqueline Wilson. This book is very special to me because it includes a piece about Shanti, my wonderful Tibetan spaniel, who very sadly died last autumn. That's Shanti on the cover, in the bottom right hand corner!
