Frances Hardinge author page

Frances Hardinge biography

Frances Hardinge is a British author known for her critically acclaimed fantasy novels for children and young adults. Born in Brighton, England, in 1973, she grew up in a 17th-century house in Kent. She studied English at Somerville College, University of Oxford.

Hardinge’s debut novel, Fly by Night, was published in 2005 and won the Branford Boase Award for outstanding debut children’s novel. She followed with titles such as Verdigris Deep (2007), Gullstruck Island (2009), A Face Like Glass (2012), and Cuckoo Song (2014), the latter winning the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel.

In 2015, Hardinge published The Lie Tree, which won the Costa Book of the Year Award—making it only the second children’s book to receive this honor. The novel also won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Her later novels include A Skinful of Shadows (2017), Deeplight (2019), and Unraveller (2022).