Sally Gardner is a British children writer and illustrator. She won both the Costa Children's Book Award 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, her parents separated and later divorced when she was five. Her mother, Nina Lowry was a barrister and judge at the Old Bailey. Gardner recalls being badly bullied in school, even being nicknamed 'Silly Sally' on account of her then undiagnosed dyslexia. She was formally diagnosed with severe dyslexia at 12 and didn't learn to read until she was 14, with the first book she read in full being ''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent re ...

''. 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 and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 2019 Sally became an Ambassador for audiobook charit
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 images ...

that she also illustrated. Her first full-length novel was a breakthrough, as '' I, Coriander'' won the Smarties 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, 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'' labels even ''The Red Necklace''

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

."THE RED NECKLACE by Sally Gardner"
''Kirkus Reviews''. 1 April 2008. Retrieved 2014-07-02. ''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 was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

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

British librarians British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, which annually recognises the best new book for children or young adults published in the UK. The alternate history 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 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' 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, 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 Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

bronze runner-up and Kids' Club Award winner, ages 6–8 yearsNestlé Children's Book Prize
Booktrust. * 2005 '' I, Coriander'', Nestlé Children's Book Prize winner, ages 9–11 years * 2006 ''I, Coriander'', shortlisted for the British 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 The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, the ...

, children's category * 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 English historical novelists English illustrators British children's book illustrators British women illustrators Carnegie Medal in Literature winners Costa Book Award winners 20th-century illustrators of fairy tales 21st-century illustrators of fairy tales Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Living people People with dyslexia People from Birmingham, West Midlands Writers with dyslexia