Sally Gardner is a British children's literature writer and illustrator. She won both the Costa Book Award for Children's Book and the Carnegie Medal for '' Maggot Moon'' (Hot Key Books, 2012). Under her pseudonym Wray Delaney she has also written adult novels.A sexual odyssey across 18th-century London has shades of Sarah Waters and the Brothers Grimm
Retrieved 10/9/21.

Life

Sally Gardner is the daughter of two lawyers. She was raised in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

; her parents separated and later divorced when she was five. Her mother, Nina Lowry, was a barrister and judge at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

. Gardner recalls being badly bullied in school, even being nicknamed 'Silly Sally' on account of her then undiagnosed

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

. She was formally diagnosed with severe

at 12 and didn't learn to read until she was 14, with the first book she read in full being '' Wuthering Heights''. Noticed by teachers for her creative flair, she did very well in art college and then in drama college, and worked as a theatre set designer before turning to illustration and writing. She lives in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In 2019 Sally became an Ambassador for audiobook charity Listening Books.

Writer

Her first book as a writer was published by Orion Books in 1993: ''The Little Nut Tree'', a children's

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

that she also illustrated. Her first full-length novel was a breakthrough, as '' I, Coriander'' won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in 2005 (reader category 9–11 years). It is set in Cromwellian London and tells the story of Coriander, the unhappy daughter of a silk merchant. ''The Red Necklace: A story of the French Revolution'' and its sequel ''The Silver Blade'' are set primarily in France during the Revolution and the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...

, also in contemporary London. They feature an aristocratic girl and a gypsy boy who are 12 and 14 years old when the story opens. The boy Yann has been trained to assist a stage magician but has or develops genuine magic powers; a starred review (unusually good) by the American service ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' labels even ''The Red Necklace''

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

."THE RED NECKLACE by Sally Gardner"
''Kirkus Reviews''. 1 April 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2014. ''The Double Shadow'' is historical fantasy that opens in 1937 Britain. ''Tinder'' (2013) is a historical novel set during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

. ''Maggot Moon'' (2012) won the Carnegie Medal from the

CILIP The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, pronounced ) is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge management, knowledge managers in the United Kingdom. It was established in 20 ...

, which annually recognises the best new book for children or young adults published in the UK. The

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

is set in 1950s England during the space race, under the thumb of the so-called Motherland. ''Kirkus'' says the unnamed "Motherland's distinguishing features scream "Nazi Germany"" and suggests that we "call it Auschwitz lite". Its reviewer judged that the book must fail between younger and older readers: on the one hand, "short chapters and simple vocabulary and syntax ... oversimplified characters, a feeble setting and inauthentic science"; on the other hand, brutal content. Three months later it was recommended for ages 11+ by the panel of British librarians that named it to the Carnegie Medal shortlist with the comment: "A stunning book with an underdog hero, Maggot Moon offers a powerful depiction of an utterly convincing and frightening dystopia. With clever plotting, conspiracy theory and a truly original concept at the heart of it, this is a real tour de force without a hint of sentimentality." The inspiration for Maggot Moon comes from Moon landing conspiracies and her research on "what if histories". In 2016 she wrote her first adult novel entitled '' An Almond for a Parrot'' which ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called 'an irresistible erotic fairytale'

Children's books

As writer and illustrator

* ''The Little Nut Tree'' (Orion Books, 1993) * ''My Little Princess'' (1994) * ''A Book of Princesses'' (Orion, 1997) – classic fairy tales retold * ''The Strongest Girl in the World'' (1999) * ''The Fairy Catalogue: everything you need to make a fairy tale'' (2000) * ''The Smallest Girl Ever'' (2000) * ''The Boy Who Could Fly'' (2001) * ''The Glass Heart: a tale of three princesses'' (2001) * ''Mama, Don't Go Out Tonight'' (2002) * ''The Invisible Boy'' (2002) * ''Boolar's Big Day Out'' (2003) * ''Fairy Shopping'' (2003) * ''The Boy with the Magic Numbers'' (2003) *'' The Countess's Calamity'' (2003) * ''I, Coriander'' (2005) * ''A Hoof in the Door'' (2005) * ''The Boy with the Lightning Feet'' (2006) * '' The Red Necklace'' (2007) () Five classic fairy tales retold and illustrated by Gardner in ''A Book of Princesses'' (1997) were reissued by Orion in 2011, singly, as the Magical Princesses series: Cinderella; The Frog Prince; The Princess and the Pea; Sleeping Beauty; Snow White. () The Magical Children series, originally published by Dolphin Paperbacks, comprises "stories about ordinary children who suddenly develop magical powers".

As writer only

* '' I, Coriander'' (2005) * ''Lucy Willow'' (2006) * '' The Red Necklace: A Story of the French Revolution'' (2007) * ''The Silver Blade'' (2008) (sequel to ''The Red Necklace'') * '' The Double Shadow'' (2011) * '' Maggot Moon'' (2012), illus. Julian Crouch * ''Tinder'' (2013), illus. David Roberts * ''The Door That Led to Where'' (2015) * ''My Side of the Diamond'' (2017), illus. Nat Barlex * ''The Snow Song'' (2020) :Wings & Co: The Fairy Detective Agency :illustrated by David Roberts and published by Orion :*''Operation Bunny'' (2012) :* ''Three Pickled Herrings'' (2012) :* ''The Vanishing of Billy Buckle'' (2013) :* ''The Matchbox Mysteries'' (2014) :* ''The Flying Carpet Thief'' (2017) :* ''Murder of Mrs Mop'' (forthcoming)

As illustrator only

* ''Robert and the Giant'' (

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited is a publishing imprint and originally a British publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half- Scot half- American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''Jame ...

, 1990), by Marjorie Newman * ''Suzi, Sam, George & Alice'' (1993), Beverley Birch * ''Playtime Rhymes'' (1995) * ''Gynormous!: The Ultimate Book of Giants'' (1996), Adrian Mitchell * ''Hello? Is Anybody There?'' (1997), Jostein Gaarder, 144 pp. – orig. ''Hallo? Er det noen her?'' , 1996 * ''The Real Fairy Storybook'' (1998), Georgie Adams * ''Polly's Running Away Book'' (2000), Frances Thomas * ''Polly's Absolutely Worst Birthday Ever'' (2001), Thomas * ''Polly's Really Secret Diary'' (2002), Thomas

Adult novels under pseudonym of Wray Delaney

* '' An Almond for a Parrot'' (2016) * ''The Beauty of the Wolf'' (2019)

Awards and nominations

* 2003 '' The Countess's Calamity'', Nestlé Children's Book Prize bronze runner-up and Kids' Club Award winner, ages 6–8 yearsNestlé Children's Book Prize
Booktrust. * 2005 '' I, Coriander'', winner Nestlé Children's Book Prize, ages 9–11 years * 2006 ''I, Coriander'', shortlisted for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

s, Children's Book of the Year * 2007 ''I, Coriander'', shortlisted for the Stockton Children's Book of the Year * 2012 '' Maggot Moon'', Costa Book Awards,

Children's Book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

* 2013 ''Maggot Moon'', Carnegie Medal

References

External links

*
Blog
*
Gardner at Book Browse
– short biography, interview, etc. * * * (plus at least 3 early works by another Sally Gardner) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Sally English children's writers British women children's writers English historical novelists English illustrators British children's book illustrators British women children's book illustrators Carnegie Medal in Literature winners Costa Book Award winners 20th-century British illustrators Illustrators of fairy tales Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands Writers with dyslexia British writers with disabilities 21st-century British illustrators