Francesca Simon

Francesca Isabella Simon (born 23 February 1955) is a British author who resides in North London. She is most famous for writing the Horrid Henry series of children's books.

She is the daughter of screenwriter and playwright Mayo Simon (not to be confused with Simon Mayo, a British radio DJ). Simon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. She grew up in California and studied at Yale and Jesus College, Oxford, where she majored in medieval studies and Old English. Simon worked as a journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, The Daily Telegraph and Vogue (US). She is married to an English husband, Martin Stamp, and has one son called Joshua (born 1989). Simon got the idea for the Horrid Henry books when a friend asked her to write a story about a horrid child. She also wanted to write about sibling rivalry and families where one child was considered "perfect" and the other "horrid". Many of the Horrid Henry stories were inspired by events from Simon's life, including her childhood, and those of people that she knew, with additional ideas coming from her imagination.

Simon was inspired to write by Anthony Trollope. She began to write children's books full-time in 1989. Simon is one of the UK's best-selling children's writers; she has published over 50 different books, including her most popular series Horrid Henry series, which has sold over 25 million copies, and has been translated into 24 languages.

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.

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.