Award-winning author, Frances Hardinge, visited King’s Ely Senior this week to join in on our action-packed ‘Festival of Reading’ celebrations.
Frances, whose debut novel, ‘Fly By Night’, won the prestigious Branford Boase Award, was with us on Tuesday (October 10th). She inspired students in Years 9-11 during morning assembly, ran workshops with pupils in Years 9 and 10, and signed copies of her books for students and staff in the Old Palace Lecture Theatre.
Frances studied English at Somerville College, Oxford. She has received and been shortlisted for many awards for her novels and short stories over the years. Frances’ writing career started after she won a short story magazine competition. Shortly after winning, she wrote ‘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 novel, ‘The Lie Tree’, won the 2015 Costa Book Award, and was the first children’s book to do so since Philip Pullman’s ‘The Amber Spyglass’ in 2001.
Frances released ‘Unraveller’ in 2022 and ‘Island of Whispers’ this year.
Thank you so much for your time, Frances – we all thoroughly enjoyed meeting you!