Author Francesca Simon: ‘Everyone’s a combination of Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter’ - Books - Hampstead Highgate Express Author Francesca Simon: ‘Everyone’s a combination of Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter’ 08:00 26 April 2016 Horrid Henry books author Franscesca Simon with City Academy students Archant Francesca Simon has just finished walking her Tibetan spaniel, Louis, around Tufnell Park where she’s lived for the past 20 years. They’re both spattered with mud. The dog’s boisterous behaviour could certainly give Francesca’s notorious literary creation Horrid Henry a scamper for his money. But she disagrees. Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in. Francesca Simon's fictional character, Horrid Henry “No!” she laughs. “He’s just a very sociable puppy.” Henry, the mop-headed mini-tyrant with a loathing for his soppy younger brother, Perfect Peter, has been a publishing phenomenon. Twenty-one million copies have been sold in the 22 years since Henry first began rampaging through the middle-class home he shares with the infuriating Peter and their exasperated parents.

Henry has run amok in 29 languages. In particular, they love him in Spain where he creates mischief as ‘Pablo Diablo’. Francesca explains his appeal: ‘Children as young as four instantly realise that it’s all the parents’ fault. “They have created the problem by idealising one child over the other. My books are very open about the fact that Henry absolutely hates his brother and would do anything to get rid of him.” Crucially, she believes her stories give children the confidence to express “uncomfortable emotions in a comic way.” Visit any public library and look at any of the 96 Horrid Henry books available, you’ll see that the pages are invariably covered in ketchup and chocolate stains – proof of how many times these much-loved stories are borrowed. Francesca says: “It’s fun to spend time with a rule-breaker such as Henry.” Indeed, such is the power of her stories that she says she knows of at least two families who, while listening to audio tapes of Horrid Henry stories in the car, narrated by the actress Miranda Richardson, they have caused such a distraction that the driver almost had a road accident.

It was the arrival of her son Josh (now 26 and a budding theatre director) that was the catalyst for Francesca’s writing career. Although she had written as a child, she says she was ‘flooded with ideas’ observing north London parenting. “If it hadn’t have been for Josh, I wouldn’t have known I had a flair for writing children’s books.” Born in Missouri in the US in the mid-50s, Francesca’s childhood was bohemian and peripatetic. The eldest of four siblings, by the age of 12 she had been to seven different schools in America, France and London. Her early childhood near the beach in Malibu, California, was, she says, “idyllic” but “squished”. Her father, Mayo Simon, screenwriter of the film The Man From Atlantis and the “go-to” man for sci-fi projects always seemed busy, tapping away on the typewriter. “Our house was all very compressed. I shared a tiny bedroom with my sister, Ann [now a professor and the scientific advisor on TV’s The X-Files]. “I didn’t get on with my brothers and sisters back then.

I just felt: ‘Please will you all go away!’ I wanted to be an only child.” And so Francesca retreated into the world of books and began writing what she describes as her own “fractured fairy tales” which were inspired by the fairy tales of the Scottish writer Andrew Lang. Modestly, she says: “I did the classic novice-writing thing of never finishing them.” Arriving in London in her early 20s after a spell abroad, she lodged with the biographer Claire Tomalin in Camden’s Gloucester Crescent. After studying at Yale University, Francesca took up a place at Oxford University to study medieval history and literature, alongside Tomalin’s daughter. “I thought: ‘Wow! This is London! This is my haven.” She says she often bumped into Tomalin’s neighbours, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller, but meetings with such cultural giants were wasted on her. She jokes: “They might as well have been the butcher and the baker.” At the time, Francesca was a student of leading Anglo-Saxon scholar Professor Eric Stanley, who himself had been a pupil of JRR Tolkein.

Indeed, she has returned to this ancient world after the success of her two mortal gods books for older children, The Sleeping Army and The Lost Gods with a new title for young adults called The Monstrous Child, due to be published in May. It is the bleakly funny saga of Hel, the Norse goddess of the dead. Francesca describes Hel as “no people-pleaser. I see her as an angry teen who is locked in her bedroom, which she’s painted black. She feels hideous. She rages: ‘I am ugly. Everyone hates me. I hate everyone’. It’s intense, chilling stuff – but myths and legends do have a lot to say. There’s a reason they have survived; they speak to very deep parts of us.” A new departure for Francesca is to have written The Monstrous Child in the first person. She explains: “I was on the subway in New York when I suddenly got this voice in my head, which turned out to be the first sentence of the book.

I have never felt like I was channelling a voice before but I could instantly get Hel’s voice.” At school she was something of a Perfect Peter herself - “you never met a better behaved child,” although she claims she was “horrid” at home. These days, her only trouble-making involves mischievously writing Horrid Henry scenes that she knows will challenge her friend Miranda Richardson when she narrates them for the audiobook – for example getting her to sing snatches of high opera. But she says it doesn’t work – “Nothing fazes Miranda!” As Francesca Simon wisely says: “Everyone is a combination of Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter, aren’t they?” Horrid Henry Early Readers Francesca Simon 10 Books Collection Set Pack | 9781407238982 | Buy Books Horrid Henry Early Readers Francesca Simon 10 Books Collection Set Pack Horrid Henry Early Readers Francesca Simon 10 Books Collection Set Pack-Our Price: £14.99 GBP-Horrid Henry is the key fictional character of The Horrid Henry series created by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross.

The first Horrid Henry book was written and published in 1994 by Orion Books and as of July 2013, there have been twenty-four titles published, as well as numerous collections, activity books and joke books. Novel Entertainment produced an animated television series for CITV. RRP: £ 49.90 Titles in this set: Horrid Henry's: Thank You Letter, Horrid Henry's: Birthday Party, Don't Be Horrid Henry !, Moody Margaret's School, Horrid Henry's Rainy Day, Horried Henry And The Football Friend, Horried Henry's Car Journey, Horrid Henry's Holidays, Horrid Henry's Nits, Horrid Henry's Author Visit. Description: Perfect books for children who have just started to read independently, this collection brings together 10 fantastic early readers starring the popular character Horrid Henry. Written by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross, the books come in a handy bag and each one features an exciting tale starring the naughtiest boy in children's literature. The stories find Henry going on holiday, having a birthday party and dealing with boredom on a rainy day!

Complete with big type and colour illustrations, the hilarious books are suitable for children aged 5 and over and are the perfect stepping stone from picture books to full-length chapter books. Bibliographic Information Horrid Henry Early Readers Francesca Simon 10 Books Collection Set Pack SKU: Horrid Henry | Horripedia, the Horrid Henry Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Horripedia, the Horrid Henry Wiki Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. Lisping Lily * Viking Mother * Mr. Mossy * DJ Vampire Father * Mrs. Crunch * Madame Tutu * Diuana Dara * Mr. Nerdon * Rabid Rebecca * Mrs. Mossy Horrid Henry is a [character] created by [Francesca Simon] and illustrated by Tony Ross].

The first Horrid Henry book was written and published in 1994 by and as of the end of 2010, there have been nineteen titles published, as well as numerous collections, activity books and joke books. Novel Entertainment produced an animated television series for CITV Channel.Voiced by Lizzie Waterworth. Horrid Henry is the main character of the entire series. He has been in every story and TV episode. Contents Edit He wears mainly a blue and yellow striped t-shirt, as well as jeans. In Horrid Henry's Household Chores , his clothes "accidentally" come out pink in the wash. Also, in Horrid Henry's Evil Enemies however, his t-shirt's colours areinverted, for an unknown reason.He also wears green and white trainers or sneakers. Enemies , Friends Peoples Queue Teachers and Henshins Families Relatives "Nah nah ne nah nah!" "It's not fair!" In February 2009, a Horrid Henry album entitled Horrid Henry's Most Horrible Album was released by EMI Records, featuring Horrid Henry songs including the TV theme tune and songs from the stage show. DVDs 1.

Horrid Henry's Horrid Revenge (Free Wormy Worm) (DVD Extra's: Purple Hand Gang Quiz, Personality Quiz, .R.O.M.) (released 23 April 2007) Horrid Henry's Horrid Revenge Horrid Henry And The Tooth Fairy Horrid Henry's Hike Horrid Henry's Sports Day Horrid Henry And The Demon Dinner Lady 2. Horrid Henry Tricks and Treats (Free Whoopee Cusion) (DVD Extra's: Henry's Horrid Hints, Goo Game) (released 24 September 2007) Horrid Henry Tricks and Treats Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend Horrid Henry's Time Capsule Horrid Henry's Haunted House Horrid Henry and the New Teacher 3. Horrid Henry's Underpants (Free Stickers)(DVD Extra's: Henry's Horrid Hints, Find the Underpants Game) (released 19 November 2007) Horrid Henry's Underpants Horrid Henry Makes Some Money Horrid Henry's Christmas 4.

Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick (Free Fair Tickets, Free Joke Cards) (DVD Extra's: Henry's Horrible Sale Game, Henry's Horrid Hints) (released 3 March 2008) Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick Horrid Henry And The Bogey Babysitter Who Stole Mr Kill? 5. Horrid Henry And The Secret Club (Free TOP SECRET Box) (released 29 September 2008) Horrid Henry and the Secret Club Perfect Peter's Horrid Day Horrid Henry and the Household Chores Horrid Henry's Trapped 6. Horrid Henry's Diary (Free Notepad) (released 17 November 2008) Horrid Henry's Diary Horrid Henry Meets The Queen Horrid Henry Goes Swimming 7. Horrid Henry's Birthday (released 16 February 2009) Horrid Henry's Birthday Horrid Henry and the Dinner Guests Where's Fluffy? 8.

Horrid Henry's Holiday (released 30 March 2009) Horrid Henry's Holiday Horrid Henry Reads a Book Horrid Henry's Sleepover Horrid Henry Goes to Work Horrid Henry and the Wedding Horrid Henry's Sick Day Horrid Henry And The Tooth Fairy Moody Margaret Moves In Horrid Henry And The Demon Dinner Lady Horrid Henry's School Fair Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick Horrid Henry And The Bogey Babysitter Who Stole Mr Kill Horrid Henry's Underpants Horrid Henry's Horrid Hamster The Complete Series 1 (The Complete First Season in a 3 disc boxset) (released 4 May 2009) 9.

Horrid Henry’s Favourite Day (released 26 October 2009) Horrid Henry’s Favourite Day Horrid Henry and the Best Boys Club Sleepover Horrid Henry and the Lost Dog Horrid Henry and the Perfect Plant Horrid Henry and the Big Dig Horrid Henry's Secret Surprise Horrid Henry's Christmas Underpants (released 9 November 2009) (a version of Horrid Henry's Underpants, with a Christmas themed cover) Horrid Henry's Christmas Horrid Henry Makes Some Money 10. Horrid Henry - Smelly Stuff (released 16 November 2009) Horrid Henry's Smelly Stuff Horrid Henry and the Alien Invasion Horrid Henry's Hiccups Horrid Henry and the Gross DVD Perfect Peter Popstar Horrid Henry and the Name Game 11. Horrid Henry Goes Fishing (released 8 February 2010) Horrid Henry Goes Fishing Horrid Henry Gets a Job 12. Horrid Henry's Fun Run (released 29 March 2010) Horrid Henry's Fun Run Horrid Henry's Pet sitting Service Horrid Henry and the School Uniform Horrid Henry on TV 13.

Horrid Henry's Ice Cream Dream (released 17 May 2010) Horrid Henry and the Ice Cream Dream Horrid Henry Takes the Biscuit Horrid Henry's Haircut Horrid Henry When I'm King Horrid Henry Takes a Shortcut Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend (released 7 June 2010) Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend Horrid Henry's Heroes Horrid Henry's School Uniform (released 30 August 2010) Horrid Henry's School Uniform Horrid Henry And The Green Machine Horrid Henry, Happy Family Horrid Henry And The Walking Stick Gang 14. Horrid Henry, Ace Reporter (released 6 September 2010) Horrid Henry, Ace Reporter Horrid Henry Goes to The Movies Horrid Henry And The Go Kart Horrid Henry's Summer Camp Horrid Henry And The Birthday Present 15. Horrid Henry and the Zombie Hamster (released 15 November 2010) Horrid Henry and the Zombie Hamster Horrid Henry and the Killer Boy Rats Horrid Henry Changes a Nappy Horrid Henry's Happy Family Horrid Henry Cooks a Meal 16.

Horrid Henry and the Green Machine (released 4 April 2011) Horrid Henry and the Green Machine Horrid Henry and the Walking Stick Gang Horrid Henry and the Antque Rogue Show Horrid Henry Untouchable Horrid Henry and the Gross Question Tapes/CDs Horrid Henry and The Secret Club (Tape, 2002; Audio CD, 2006) Horrid Henry Tricks The Tooth Fairy (Tape, 2001; Audio CD, 2005) Horrid Henry's Nits (Tape, 2000; Audio CD, 2005) Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick (Tape, 2000; Audio CD, 2005) Horrid Henry's Haunted House (Tape, 2000; Audio CD, 2005) Horrid Henry and The Mummy's Curse (Tape, 2001; Audio CD, 2004) Horrid Henry's Revenge (Tape, 2002; Audio CD, 2005) Horrid Henry and The Bogey Babysitter (Tape, 2

002; Audio CD, 2004) Horrid Henry's Stinkbomb (Tape, 2002; Audio CD, 2004) Horrid Henry's Underpants (Tape, 2003; Audio CD, 2004) Horrid Henry Meets The Queen (Audio CD and Tape, 2004) Horrid Henry and The Mega-Mean Time Machine (Audio CD and Tape, 2005) Horrid Henry and The Football Fiend (Audio CD and Tape, 2006) Horrid Henry's Christmas Cracker (Audio CD and Tape, 2006) Horrid Henry and The Abominable Snowman (Audio CD and Tape, 2007) Horrid Henry Robs The Bank (Audio CD, 2008) Horrid Henry Wakes the Dead (Audio CD, 2009) Music is covered by Peter Rinne and Dik Cadbury, all CD/Tapes narrated by Miranda Richardson , produced by Peter Rinne and Nicholas Jones , cover illustrations by Tony Ross .

Horrid Henry's Gross Guide to Terrible Teachers was released in May 2010 as the first in a series of audio CD's voiced by Horrid Henry. Live Performance Edit Henry also stars in his own stage play Horrid Henry - Live and Horrid!, produced by Watershed Productions in association with Sheffield Theatres and Novel Entertainment and adapted by celebrated playwright John Godber . The production opened at the Lyceum Theatre (Sheffield) on 28 August 2008, before embarking on a UK tour which included Newcastle, Edinburgh, Hull, Bradford, Liverpool, High Wycombe and Bromley. The show moved to London's West End on 21 November 2008 where it appeared at the Trafalgar Studios for a 7 week run over Christmas and New Year. Steven Butler originated the role of Horrid Henry on stage. Horrid Henry - Live and Horrid! returned to the stage Christmas 2009 at The Dancehouse in Manchester.

Video Games Edit Horrid Henry's first video game, Missions of Mischief , was released on 30 October 2009 on Nintendo DS , Wii and PC and went straight to number 1 in Amazon's 'Hot New Releases'. The game is developed and published by Asylum Entertainment UK Ltd. in association with Novel Entertainment. Horrid Henry's Horrid Adventure was released on Nintendo DS on 5 November 2010. Merchandise Edit The Horrid Henry licensing program includes Abbey Kids (DVDs), Asylum Entertainment (video games), EMI Records (music), Fabric Flavours (t-shirts and sweatshirts), Fiesta Crafts (hand and finger puppets), Flair Leisure Products (toys), Jumbo (games and puzzles), SilverKnit (apparel), TDP Aykroyd (nightwear and underwear), Woodmansterne (cards and giftwrap).

Toys and games Edit Horrid Henry merchandise includes Collectable Figurine Sets, Electronic Voice Changer, Mischief Sets, Remote Control Scary Sounds Machine, Practical Jokes, Triple Trouble Blaster, Electronic Splat Attack Game, 14" Talking Plush, Purple Hand Gang Fort Playset, 5" and 6" Action Figures and puzzles and Horrid Henry Gelli Baff. On January 31, 2011, Flair Leasure Products announced it will launch a new line of toys based on "Horrid Henry" at the end of summer in time for the opening of the 3D movie. Reception In April 2008 "Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman" won the Galaxy Children's book of the Year Award. Horrid Henry has twice been nominated for BAFTA's Best Animation; in 2009 and 2010. Why children love Henry and his horrid antics - Telegraph Why children love Henry and his horrid antics Francesca Simon tells Christopher Middleton that her beastly creation isn’t all bad.

Boy vs world: Horrid Henry: The Movie By Francesca Simon 4:00PM BST 05 Aug 2011 The one golden rule of writing fiction is that your main character should be likeable. So how is it that Francesca Simon, author of our August book choice, has managed to sell 16 million books featuring a hero called Horrid Henry? Out of the 40 titles in the series, we have selected the latest, four-story compilation, entitled Horrid Henry Rocks. In the course of 98 pages, Henry sabotages his younger brother (Perfect) Peter’s bedroom and fluffy sheep collection, wages all-out war against his deadly schoolgirl rival Moody Margaret, and then proceeds to wreck a Daffy and Her Dancing Daisies performance by singing the lyrics to a track by Killer Boy Rats (his favourite band). He’s naughty, he’s self-obsessed, and he causes chaos wherever he goes. In short, he’s horrid. So how come he’s so appealing? “The thing is, Henry never does or says anything that every other child hasn’t at least thought of doing or saying”, says Simon.

“And although he gives the illusion of being naughty, he doesn’t set out to do bad things. With Henry, it’s all spontaneous. “I see him not as being bad, but as being an imp, in the same way that other children’s characters have that kind of impishness, like Pippi Longstocking and (Just) William Brown. On top of which, Henry has many likeable qualities, although as a parent, it’s fair to say that you might not want your child to behave exactly like him. Related Articles A fresh take on a gory story 01 Apr 2011 “There again, it’s clear why he is like he is. Even kids as young as four years old get it. The fact is, Henry’s parents have created the situation, by the way they constantly praise his younger brother, Perfect Peter, in the hope of improving Henry. Which is, of course, what parents do, when they keep on going ‘Why can’t you be like your brother or sister?’” This realisation can, of course, make reading the Horrid Henry books a not 100 per cent comfortable experience for mothers and fathers.

Certainly, Simon pulls no punches when depicting the turbulence of family life.” “We’ve all had the family car journeys from hell, haven’t we?” she laughs (she herself has a son, though he’s now in his early 20’s). “And come on, there’s no point pretending siblings don’t fight, is there? “What my books do, I guess, is bring these things out into the open, rather than sweeping them under the carpet. Speaking as someone who was unbelievably well behaved at school, but very badly behaved at home, reading about that kind of naughtiness in a book can be rather liberating; it gives kids a chance to explore the wicked side of themselves, but in a safe way, with no consequences. It’s a bit of an escape outlet, if you like.” Rather than seeing Henry’s spats with brother Peter as psychologically damaging, then, Simon views them as part of the rough-and-tumble of family life. “Besides, although Peter is constantly falling for Henry’s tricks, he has a certain indomitable quality”, she insists (she likens him to Manuel, in Fawlty Towers).

“He may lose out, but he rises straight back up again, with true, younger-sibling fighting spirit.” The same goes for Moody Margaret, Weepy William, even Henry’s bête noire of a form teacher, Miss Battle Axe, who finds herself condemned (in Henry’s imagination, anyway) to every kind of exaggerated fate, from being a galley slave to working in an salt mine run by aliens. However, while Henry does have his share of triumphs, his adversaries record enough victories to keep the reader guessing. The score at the end of Horrid Henry Rocks, is roughly Henry 2, Rest Of The World 2. When it comes to the children’s book market, though, Henry has already conquered it. As well as appearing in written form, he now features on children’s TV, in audiobooks (read by Miranda Richardson), and, just recently, on the big screen, in Horrid Henry The Movie, starring Anjelica Huston as Miss Battle Axe and Richard E Grant as evil educational entrepreneur Vic van Wrinkle. Yes, Horrid Henry has gone global, but the epicentre of his world remains his bedroom, his annoying younger brother, and his even more annoying parents.

“There’s no doubt about it”, says Simon. “Families are a great source of comedy.” And not even Horrid Henry could argue with that. Horrid Henry Rocks is published by Orion Books (paperback £4.99). For more Henry information, visit ALTERNATIVELY… Recommended reading for other age groups: 8-12 years: Twilight Robbery, by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan £9.99) The fantastic adventures of feisty, young orphan Mosca Mye, in a city divided between day-dwellers and night-dwellers. 12-15 years: Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys (Puffin £6.99) Reading Notes Harry Potter and the curse of middle age: should fictional children ever grow up? | Books | The Guardian The Guardian Harry Potter and the curse of middle age: should fictional children ever grow up? JK Rowling’s beloved characters are taking to the stage as adults in The Cursed Child. But are fans ever ready for their childhood heroes to grow up?

Leading authors have their say by Anthony Horowitz, Cressida Cowell, Charlie Higson , Francesca Simon , Michael Rosen and others JK Rowling’s beloved characters are taking to the stage as adults in The Cursed Child. But are fans ever ready for their childhood heroes to grow up? Leading authors have their say by Anthony Horowitz, Cressida Cowell, Charlie Higson , Francesca Simon , Michael Rosen and others Harry Potter and the curse of middle age: should fictional children ever grow up? Saturday 23 July 2016 03.00 EDT Anthony Horowitz Author of the Alex Rider series Children shouldn’t grow up, really … and certainly not the heroes of children’s books. Take a look at the last chapter of Peter Pan, which comes with the oppressive title, “When Wendy Grew Up”. Wendy is now a mother with a daughter called Jane and they have this exchange: “Why can’t you fly now, mother?” “Because I am grown up, dear. When people grow up, they forget the way.” For Barrie, this was something of an obsession.

His older brother, David, had died in an ice-skating accident at the age of 14, and the family took solace from the fact that the dead child would remain young for ever. This was certainly part of the inspiration for Peter Pan. “All children, except one, grow up,” he mournfully observed. The best children’s books celebrate the innocence and joy of childhood. They capture and preserve it. Do we really want to know that Just William became an accountant or that Charlie sold his chocolate factory to Nestlé and took up golf? Speaking personally, I felt a sense of betrayal when we glimpsed Harry as an adult at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . I was reminded of a wonderful film, Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between, which is as much about childhood as it is about love. At the end, the youthful Leo, played by Dominic Guard, is transformed into the elderly, ghost-like Michael Redgrave. “Leo, you’re all dried up inside,” he’s told and he doesn’t disagree. That’s what growing up can do to you. It’s what children’s books fight against.

Curiously, I once flirted with the idea of re-examining my own hero, Alex Rider, in his late 20s. He wouldn’t exactly be old, but he would certainly be a wreck, psychologically damaged by all the terrible adventures I’d put him through. I saw him in the opening chapter, waking up in a dirty, crumpled bed in a shabby room, rolling over and lighting two cigarettes; one for himself, one for the woman he was sleeping with. My publishers told me, politely, that it was a terrible idea. And they were right. As it happens, I have recently begun a new Alex novel. But he’s still a child. After surviving 10 missions, he’s aged just one year – from 14 to 15. Alex still embodies, for me, the resilience and the single-mindedness of childhood. I don’t want to see him hurt. More to the point, nowadays I often meet people in their late 20s and early 30s who read him as a child and who have clearly not quite forgotten the joy they felt sharing his adventures. I feel the same about Hal and Roger Hunt in the Willard Price stories and Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island.

Why would any writer want to sully that with the withering curse of old age? Cressida Cowell Pinterest Hiccup and Toothless in the film adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon. Photograph: Allstar/Dreamworks I began writing How to Train Your Dragon when I’d just had my first baby. There’s a moment as a new parent when you look in the back of the car and think, “They’re going to let me out of hospital with a baby?” That feeling of excitement mixed with terror – still visceral, years later – was a huge inspiration to me as an author, because it made me think about what sort of childhood I had had, and what sort of parent I wanted to be. Consequently, the heart of the How to Train Your Dragon series is all about growing up. The very beginning of the first book starts with Hiccup looking back: “I was not a natural at the heroism business. I had to work at it. This is the story of becoming a hero the hard way …” I include humour and illustrations because I want the books to be accessible and encourage kids to get into reading but actually, I’m trying to get them to think about deeper issues. Why are there wars?

Why do we need to look after the environment? What makes a hero? What sort of person is Hiccup growing up to be, and who do they want to be? Growing up is also an integral, inescapable part of being a children’s author. I write and illustrate a book a year, but I’m very aware that my audience is growing up at the same rate and I want them to stay with me. I write with a dual audience in mind: the books are for children, of course, but they’re also for the adults who often read with them. I set out with a very specific aim of trying to make the adult reading the book with the child cry (sorry, adults!). The ultimate ambition of a children’s author is to be part of their readers’ childhood, or parenthood, and, of course, to get children reading in the first place. A key part of that is getting the adults to enjoy bedtime reading as well: I believe that books read in your parents’ voices stay with you all your life. I don’t think that books have to have their characters growing up – I love “adventures of” series, such as the Asterix or Tintin books.

But for me, Hiccup’s journey towards heroism and growing up is the story, and my own, too, as a writer and a parent. And that first baby? She’s 18 this year, and leaving home, just as I have finished the last book in the series, How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury. I’ll let you decide whether that is a coincidence or not … Charlie Higson Author of the Young James Bond series The thing about characters in children’s books is they’re not supposed to grow up. Just William managed to remain 11 years old for 50 years, from the 1920s right through to the space age. Bart Simpson has pulled off a similar trick, as has Dennis the Menace (although, who knows, he may yet appear in a Martin Amis novel as a disaffected, state of the nation adult who has problems with his “rug”). And as for Peter Pan, the whole point is that he never grows up, which is why he’s so sinister and heartless – he’s a permanent boy with all of a boy’s limitations.

The Spielberg film, Hook, with Robin Williams as a grown up Peter who has to regain his youthful spirit in order to set things right, seems to miss the point. I think Barrie presents Peter’s arrested development as lonely and rather tragic. That said, ageing was always built in to Harry Potter . Each book took him through a year of his life. JK Rowling very cleverly kept the spirit of the books the same, and aimed them at a fairly consistent age group, even though Harry was growing up and facing new emotional challenges as the series progressed. And now she’s done the obvious thing – she’s given Harry three school-age children, and one of them, Albus, fills the “Harry Potter” role. This is the alternative to the Just William model, to constantly refresh a popular series with new children, as was done in stories like the Chalet School books by Elinor Brent-Dyer. My problem, when I was planning the Young James Bond series, was the opposite – how to take a well-known adult character and show him as a boy. Ian Fleming would no doubt have been appalled at the idea.

Bond says a few times in the original books that he had a fairly ordinary childhood and that the innocent boy he had been would not recognise the deadly adult he has become. But a series of adventure books in which the main character makes sand castles and goes to the pictures would not have gone down very well. So I used Bond’s musings on his past as a starting point and I began my series with James as an ordinary boy starting “big” school. He’s already slightly set apart from the others because he’s lost both his parents (all children in adventure books have to be orphans), but he’s going to be put through the wringer. Over the course of the series I showed the traumatic, terrifying and yet exhilarating experiences that mould James into the damaged yet resourceful adult we meet in Fleming’s books. Francesca Simon Author of the Horrid Henry books “Will Horrid Henry ever grow up?” “What will Horrid Henry be like when he’s an adult?”, “No,” and “I don’t know” is how I answer these questions when children ask, which they do, frequently. When you create a character, you may know him well, but you don’t know everything.

Pinterest An illustration of Horrid Henry by Tony Ross. Photograph: Tony Ross/Orion What I do know is that Henry’s magic is his youth. Lose that and you lose everything that makes him appealing and funny. Without his fizzing energy, his plotting, his squabbles with his younger brother, Henry deflates in my mind. I could write an adult character called Henry, but it would be someone else. Horrid Henry isn’t unique as a literary child who never ages. William Brown is forever young. So is Pippi Longstocking. Like Horrid Henry, the qualities that make them original, imaginative and fearless are tied up with both youth, and the constraints of youth – fighting against conformity and the adult world they all reject. Louisa May Alcott aged the March sisters, which works, though I’ve yet to meet the person who treasures Jo’s Boys above Little Women . The reader gets the joy of finding out what happened next, but there is always loss, as the adult characters inevitably lack the folly, the insouciance and the possibility of their younger selves. We move from a world where everything is up for grabs to one where most doors slam shut.

(Don’t marry that boring professor!) I’ve always admired JK Rowling’s boldness in ageing her characters. What makes Harry, Hermione and Ron unique and compelling is much more than their youth: Harry Potter lives in such an extraordinarily detailed alternative universe that adulthood brings new challenges. In some ways, the world itself is more compelling than the characters, so keeping the magical background is what keeps the stories –and the characters – forever young. Horrid Henry for prime minister? I don’t think so. Horrid Henry the bank robber? Unlikely. Horrid Henry, Lord High Majesty and Ruler of the Universe? Now we’re talking. Patrick Ness Author of the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls I call this “the First Four Years question”. As a kid, I read and reread the Little House on the Prairie books over and over again (favourite book: The Long Winter. I wanted to be trapped in my own blizzard, still do). The final book – you may never have heard of it, you’re forgiven, see below – is The First Four Years, which documents the titular time period of Laura Ingalls’ marriage to Almanzo. It’s the shortest book in the series, caps everything off and finishes a glorious box set.

Three decades after I first read Little House in the Big Woods, I am yet to reach the end of The First Four Years. That’s not actually because I was necessarily uninterested in Laura’s married life (though I doubt eight-year-old me cared that much). It’s because (whisper it) it’s a pretty rubbish novel. They all get a little weird and libertarian by the end, that’s true, but this one in particular is an unpolished draft and doesn’t match up to the rest of the series. And it has no notable blizzards. So there’s your dilemma. If you’re going to show your young characters as adults, it had better be good. Readers have a say in what their reading universe includes, and they’ll leave you behind if you get it wrong. Having said that, I absolutely believe that it’s the author alone who needs to make this decision. If you’ve got something new to say, then absolutely say it. Stories come from all sorts of places and why not, if something grabs you and needs to be told? This is the pressure that Rowling is under. Asking readers to pay for two nights of West End tickets is an audacious undertaking. But I like audacious undertakings.

If by some unforeseen disaster, The Cursed Child doesn’t work, a generation will do what I did with The First Four Years: pretend it doesn’t exist and go back to the books I loved. But for the sake of boldness in children’s literature, for the sake of widening its already incredible scope, I hope it’s a barnstormer. Michael Rosen Author of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Sad Book JK Rowling took a big risk with the Harry Potter cycle when she let her heroes grow older. She triumphed over one tradition in children’s literature: the one that freezes its heroes in a state of permanent childhood. Now she’s fleshing out their adult lives. It’s all getting to be a bit like the TV series 7Up. Is Ron driving a taxi? Is Hermione teaching gender studies at the University of Sussex? Pinterest We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen One of the many falsities of fiction that we accept quite happily is the non-ageing of characters as they appear across series and sequels.

Perhaps it all started with tales of gods, goddesses and superheroes who may well start out as infants (or chunks of matter), grow up, but then plateau out into a state of permanent warring, lusting and vanquishing. Storytellers would garnish or add extra courses according to taste. Down on earth, the same goes for the animal heroes of folk tales and fables: Europe’s Reynard, north America’s Coyote, the Caribbean’s Anansi. One generation of tales was like an invitation to people to add on new adventures. The cunning animal lived on. The effect of all this is to offer us something we can’t realise in life, a permanent youth in which we experience daily time but not lifespan time. By the end of the Victorian era, key examples from the canon of children’s literature were laying down a blueprint: the Alice books, George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin. In popular children’s literature – chapbooks and comics – the old folk tradition of ageless heroes, like the characters themselves, never died, whether that’s 19th-century figures such as Aly Sloper or 20th-century ones such as Dennis the Menace.

With the two Winnie-the-Pooh books, AA Milne grappled with this permanent childhood problem in the last pages of the second book, apparently accepting that there is a place where Christopher Robin is going to , but where Pooh and Eeyore and the rest cannot follow. Thankfully, Just William, the Famous Five and the Secret Seven have never become the stockbrokers, MPs and headteachers they all sounded as if they would become. Kate Saunders Author of Five Children on the Western Front If I loved a fictional child when I was a child, I always wondered what happened to them afterwards. Did Mary in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden grow up to marry gorgeous Dickon? Did Bobbie in E Nesbit’s The Railway Children marry the boy with the broken leg, who happened to be the grandson of the Kind Old Gentleman? And what about poor old Susan Pevensie in CS Lewis’s Narnia series? The end of The Last Battle made me want to shake the tweedy old misogynist until his dentures rattled.

Susan is left all alone after a train smash whisks her entire family off to an eternity of tea with Mr and Mrs Beaver (still my idea of heaven), when her only crime was turning into a pretty young woman. The point is that when great characters enter the reader’s imagination, they take on a life of their own. Millions have dreamed of the further adventures of Harry Potter – will they be disappointed to see him on stage as a grownup with kids and a stressful job? This is the risk a writer runs, when he or she lets in the drab colours of real life. JK Rowling is far too brilliant to burst her own bubble, but some writers have shown that they can’t be trusted with their own creations. I was disappointed by LM Montgomery’s endless sequels to her classic Anne of Green Gables. In the first book Anne is utterly charming, brimming with promise and possibility, and it was painful to watch her dwindling into the rather smug wife of a country doctor.

I was never entirely satisfied with the later lives of the Fossil girls from Ballet Shoes either, when they made guest appearances in Noel Streatfeild’s later novels (sadly I won’t be alive when Ballet Shoes goes out of copyright – so I’ll never get to write about the stormy early life of Madame Fidolia). While I was writing Five Children on the Western Front, in which the five children from Nesbit’s Psammead books grow up to experience the first world war, I was incredibly careful not to break faith with the spirit of the originals; I couldn’t forget how much I loved them, and “love” isn’t too strong a word to describe the feelings children have for their favourite fictional characters. Some of us never grow out of it. Chris Riddell SF Said Author of Varjak Paw and Phoenix When I first read Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books , they were a trilogy about a hero in his prime.

In A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Tombs of Atuan (1971) and The Farthest Shore (1972), she told the story of Ged, also known as Sparrowhawk, as he grew from Gontish goatherd to world-saving wizard: a classic children’s book narrative. That seemed to be the end of it. But then she found new stories to tell. In Tehanu (1990), she showed Ged living a life without magic, learning to take satisfaction in the pleasures and pains of an ordinary existence with Tenar, the priestess who shared his greatest adventure. The book follows her story as much as Ged’s. Then in The Other Wind (2001), Le Guin showed Ged near the end of his days: still wise, but almost an absence now, reconciled to his irrelevance. The story was about other characters finding their way without him. Le Guin wrote a new story whenever she had something new to say. That seems to me exactly right. I’ve never wanted to give my own characters new adventures in which nothing changes. Repetition seems to me a much bigger risk than letting them grow.

So in my first book, Varjak Paw, Varjak is a kitten: a very young character who learns a secret martial art from very ancient cats. In The Outlaw Varjak Paw, he is a grownup cat, and the questions he faces are grownup questions about law and justice, politics and morality. I stopped there, because I didn’t have another story to tell about him. To my surprise, now a decade has gone by, I find myself thinking more and more about Varjak. He seems to be ageing with me. I now feel sure there will be a third book, in which the story comes full circle. Varjak will now be an old cat himself, teaching the secret martial art to much younger kittens: passing it on. That makes sense to me as the shape of a trilogy, and the shape of a life. But to write a story about an old character, perhaps you should be old yourself, to know what it feels like. I’m getting there faster than I thought possible, but I’m not quite ready yet. I am keeping notes, though, making plans, gathering material for that time. It’s comforting to know that far greater writers have made this journey. I look at Le Guin’s example.

As she recently said of Earthsea : “Authors and wizards learn to be patient while the magic works.” I just hope readers can be patient too. Jamila Gavin Pinterest A production of Coram Boy at the National Theatre in 2005. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian The first time I confronted this was in The Wheel of Surya, the first of the trilogy. Readers asked, “What happened next?” and I loved it. In Coram Boy, there is a development from boy to man within the novel. When you have created characters, you do grow up with them. Dickens did it in Great Expectations, which I read as a child and again as an adult. He was interested in how the child develops into the man, and JK Rowling seems to have the same interest. With characters as strong as Harry, Ron and Hermione, I think it will be a success. Writers instinctively know when there’s more to be discovered. Laura Dockrill Author of the Darcy Burdock books Watching Darcy Burdock grow up has been one of the most gut-twisting experiences of my writing life.

Creating and falling in love with a character, nurturing them and seeing them through a book series is the closest thing I’ve ever known to being an actual real-life mum. As the writer, you start to care about the tiny things your character cares about; your favourite food becomes dippy egg and chips, your favourite colour is “sparkles” too. If Darcy was real, I know these things most likely would not be her favourite things for ever, but isn’t it scary to think they could end up being mine? Your fictional character could end up growing up and leaving you behind. I like to see my characters as fixed. Loyal. Take The Simpsons, for example. Bart doesn’t one day have an Adam’s apple and Lisa never starts talking about her period pains. In one episode Bart gets a stupid tattoo, but in the next, where is the tattoo? Nowhere to be seen. Good. We love them because they are the same. They are our friends. Friends who appear when we want them to. Who keep making mistakes for us, so we don’t have to. We write and read children’s books because we want to grasp that precious tender age of anything-could-happen-ness.

I don’t want to see Tracy Beaker argue with her boyfriend outside a pub, I don’t want to see Sophie from The BFG with a walking stick and grey hair, nor do I want to see Max from Where The Wild Things Are sipping champagne at his gallery opening. I don’t want Darcy to get insecure about turning 30. I want her full of hope. Maybe it’s selfish. Maybe I’m just terrified of change or maybe – quite possibly – it’s me who needs to do the growing up. Leila Rasheed Author of the Bathsheba Clarice de Trop books I love the idea of my child characters growing up. In a sense, that’s what children’s literature is always about – children or teenagers learning and growing and developing so at the end of the story they’re a step closer to the adult they will one day become. I am sure Bathsheba will grow up to be a happier person because of what happens to her and the choices (including the mistakes) she makes. Having said that, I can understand that readers might not want characters to grow up.

As a child I loved the Earthsea books by Ursula Le Guin, but when I came across a fourth, Tehanu, in which Tenar is an adult, I felt as if I’d been slapped. I shut the book and put it back on the shelf. I saw Tenar as a girl, not a woman. Another traumatic moment was reading the first of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books that depicts Laura as a woman. The change from carefree child, often in danger but always, ultimately, safe because her parents loved her, to an adult with no safety net, was really shocking. Sometimes readers want a child to stay a child. When Harry Potter grows up … Illustration by Alex Hahn. Jennifer Bell Author of The Crooked Sixpence Characters exist beyond the pages of a book. They live and grow in readers’ minds, especially when those readers are children whose imaginations are boundless. I would be fascinated to read about the journeys my favourite child characters were embarking on as adults, but I would be nervous too. After all they had gone through in their youth – and all I had gone through with them – would I really want to see what had happened to them?

Would that kill the magic of the original story or trivialise it in some way? It is an exceptionally powerful thing to see a child transform into an adult. In the time slip adventure Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, young protagonist Tom befriends Hatty – a girl he witnesses ageing each time they meet. As Hatty leaves her youth behind, the story inevitably darkens; she becomes more of a stranger. Ageing a child is used just as effectively in the final chapter of JM Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, in which Mrs Darling and Nana have died, the lost boys are “grown up and done for” and Wendy is married with a daughter. When Peter sees Wendy as an adult he is terrified, and the reader is too. The brutality of the passage resonates throughout the whole story, forcing you to consider what it really means to grow up. Philip Reeve Author of the Mortal Engines quartet My characters keep growing up on me. I don’t plan it that way, because I seldom plan ahead when I’m starting a new book. I just write it, and if I’m aiming it at older children and teens, I tend to make the main characters 15 or 16.

But then it turns out to want a sequel, and maybe evolves into a series. Time passes in the world I’ve created, and I soon find that I’m writing about adults. I’m not alone in this. The Harry Potter series is a good example. If readers start with The Philosopher’s Stone when they’re nine or 10, and read one book per year, they’ll age at the same rate as Harry and co. When the books were new, and fans were waiting for each one to be released, that was exactly what was happening, and I’m sure part of the affection today’s twentysomethings feel for Potter comes from the sense that he grew up with them. But now that the whole series is available, it’s far more likely that a keen young reader who burns through the whole lot in a couple of months will read about 17-year-old Harry while they’re still nine or 10 themselves. This is not a problem, of course. Fiction is all about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, and it can add to the thrill if they’re a few sizes too big.

Contemporary children’s books tend to feature child protagonists, but I grew up reading books from the 50s and 60s, in which the characters were often grownups, like Biggles, or the heroes of Ronald Welch’s military tales. Tolkien’s hobbits are mostly well into middle age by the time their adventures begin. Many of Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novels, like Warrior Scarlet, follow their central character from boyhood into adult life. In one of them, Dawn Wind, he turns out to be a rather bitter and troubled adult, which I’ve always thought was a brave move. Because there is a problem in writing adult protagonists for children. Even the lives of happy children are beset with fears and difficulties – bullies, school, exams. They tend to look forward to being grownups, when they imagine they’ll be able to do what they want and cope with whatever life chucks at them. But a writer trying to write seriously about adulthood can’t shy away from the fact that it involves a lot of worry, compromise and disappointment, and that many adults look back on childhood as the best time of their lives. In the end, like everything, it comes down to tone.

Are you aiming for fun, or comfort, or escapist adventure, or brutal honesty? There’s room enough in the broad church of children’s fiction for stories that look unflinchingly at growing up and for those whose brave young protagonists mature into happy adults. And there’s also a place for characters who never age at all, and whose adventures unfold endlessly in an eternal golden childhood. • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opens at the Palace theatre, London W1D, on 30 July. harrypottertheplay.com . The official script is published by Little, Brown on 31 August. To order a copy for the special price of £9 (RRP £20), or browse the rest of the books featured, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min. p&p of £1.99. Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This!

Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Horrid Henry: The Movie ( 2011 ) PG | From $3.99 (SD) on Amazon Video Horrid Henry finds himself doing things he never ever thought he'd do, and then some. Director: Tony Ross (illustrations), Francesca Simon (based on characters created by) | 1 more credit » Stars: a list of 25 titles created 09 Feb 2011 a list of 26 titles created 11 Aug 2011 a list of 44 titles created 01 Dec 2011 a list of 24 titles created 24 Apr 2014 a list of 34 titles created 19 Feb 2015 Title: Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011) 3.8/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Horrid Henry (TV Series 2006) Animation | Comedy | Family For Horrid Henry, life is just not fair!

He feels that the rest of the world is against him and he wages a constant war against the tyranny of adults. Like any headstrong young boy, he is ... See full summary » Stars: Lizzie Waterworth, Tamsin Heatley, Wayne Forester Two kids look to throw an ambitious dance show in order to save their struggling youth center. Director: Ben Gregor Make room for ogre-sized family fun as the greatest fairy tale never told comes to life in a whole new way in this breathtaking Broadway musical adaptation of the hit movie Shrek! Director: Michael John Warren Brum is a car who loves to go around the city each day. Follow him as he helps save the day by identifying criminals, dances with people and sometimes even gets up to no good, only to be helpful later. Stars: Toyah Willcox, Mike Cavanagh, Tom Wright Being one of 101 takes its toll on Patch, who doesn't feel unique. When he's accidentally left behind on moving day, he meets his idol, Thunderbolt, who enlists him on a publicity campaign.

Directors: Jim Kammerud, Brian Smith Stars: Barry Bostwick, Jason Alexander, Martin Short A single dad has his hands full raising six rambunctious chipmunks in this animated comedy. Stars: Ross Bagdasarian Jr., Janice Karman, Vanessa Bagdasarian Join Katsuma, Poppet, Mr. Snoodle, and the other Moshi Monters in an action-packed, song-filled race against time! Together they must stop evil Dr. Strangeglove and his incompetent Glump ... See full summary » Directors: Wip Vernooij, Morgan Francis Stars: Phillipa Alexander, Tom Clarke Hill, Steve Cleverley E.B., the Easter Bunny's teenage son, heads to Hollywood, determined to become a drummer in a rock 'n' roll band. In LA, he's taken in by Fred after the out-of-work slacker hits E.B. with his car. Director: Tim Hill The adventures of Spot, a little yellow puppy and his family and friends.

Stars: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Paul Nicholas, Peter Hawkins Edit Storyline When Henry fails yet again to hand in his homework for the umpteenth time, he has no idea that this will set off a chain of events which will see him forming an unlikely alliance with Moody Margaret, the infuriating girl next door, and his irritating little brother Perfect Peter, outwitting corrupt School Inspectors and toppling an evil Headmaster, winning a talent contest and facing his ultimate nemesis with no way out - all because he is trying to save the very school which he has always professed to hate! Written by Anonymous Rated PG for some rude humor | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 11 January 2013 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia Francesca Simon , author of the Horrid Henry books, stated that she has not seen the film and had nothing to do with it.

See more » Connections Not quite horrid, but a real disappointment 25 August 2011 | by TheLittleSongbird (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews I love the books and the TV series, and although I was very dubious of seeing Horrid Henry:The Movie, especially after hearing it had 3D and Dick and Dom, part of me was eager to see it. So I did, expecting an entertaining enough movie on its own terms. What I got was a real disappointment. It wasn't horrid, but overall it was the weakest films I've seen so far this year and one of the most disappointing. The only good things for me were Theo Stevenson's spirited performance and the jaunty soundtrack. Firstly I didn't like how the film looked. It was certainly colourful but also in a sense over-saturated. Horrid Henry:The Movie was quite badly edited as well, constantly it felt very awkward and rushed. The costumes are also rather cartoony in style. I wasn't happy that Horrid Henry:The Movie would have 3D effects, I frankly didn't think it needed it, and after seeing I still wasn't happy.

I still think they were unnecessary, and the lack of clarity and sharpness in the effects themselves cheapened the film for me. The story was another minus, overall I found it very rushed and predictable with little of the charm and simplicity that the books and TV series had. The only thing I liked about the story was the lack of the over-sentimental(or it can be) "I love you son" sort of ending. The writing was messy, the dialogue is often weak and the laughs feel forced. When I saw it the closest the audience came to laughing were a couple of barely audible giggles. Kids either had a sort of amused expression or a sense they weren't sure whether they were supposed to laugh but a lot of adults looked as though they wished they had a triple detention instead. The cast are talented, but at least to me the film just seemed like an excuse to bring in as many British or TV personalities as possible. Many of them try hard and overdo it, Richard E.Grant definitely applies here, or are wasted, Jo Brand, or don't try, Matthew Horne.

I know they deliberately exaggerated Miss Lovely's character, or so it seemed, but the characterisation was a little too over-eager and sugary for my tastes. Anjelica Huston fares better, she is a wonderful actress and while she overdoes the accent she clearly seems to be enjoying herself. If I had to ask myself what was the most painful bit about this movie? I'd say aside from the poor writing and the unnecessary 3D, it has to be the abysmally unfunny appearance of Dick and Dom. All in all, a real disappointment. 3/10 Bethany Cox 8 of 10 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes

Question: Which author created the fictional character "Horrid Henry"?
Answer: FRANCESCA SIMON