Sally Gardner grew up and still lives in London. Being dyslexic, she did not learn to read or write until she was fourteen and had been thrown out of several schools, labeled unteachable, and sent to a school for maladjusted children. Despite this, she gained a degree with highest honors at a leading London art college, followed by a scholarship to a theater school, and then went on to become a very successful costume designer, working on some notable productions.
After the birth of twin daughters and a son, she started first to illustrate and then to write picture books and chapter books, usually with fairytale- or otherwise magical subject matter. She has been called ‘an idiosyncratic genius’ by London’s Sunday Times.
Books in order of publication:
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)
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