Cressida Cowell

The Hon. Cressida Cowell was born on 15 April, 1966 in London. She is the daughter of Michael Hare, 2nd Viscount Blakenham. Her uncle, by marriage, is former U.S. Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer.

As a child, Cowell states she "grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland,"{{cite web |url=http://www.worldbookday.com/bookauthor/cressida-cowell/ |title=Cressida Cowell | World Book Day |accessdate=21 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221084357/http://www.worldbookday.com/bookauthor/cressida-cowell/ |archivedate=21 December 2013}} and that it was during summers spent on the Inner Hebrides,[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8592461.stm "Secret Scottish isle inspired dragon tales"] BBC News, 30 March 2010. where she first began to develop her writing and drawing skills:

:"I spent a great deal of time as a child on a tiny, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland...By the time I was eight, my family had built a small stone house on the island, and with the boat, we could nearly fish for enough food to feed the family for the whole summer."{{Cite news |last=Cowell |first=Cressida |date=7 February 2020 |title=Opinion {{!}} I Had a Gloriously Wild Childhood. That's Why I Wrote 'How to Train Your Dragon.' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/opinion/sunday/cressida-cowell-children-nature.html |access-date=21 April 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

:"From then on, every year we spent four weeks of the summer and two weeks of the spring on the island. The house was lit by candle-light, and there was no telephone or television, so I spent a lot of time drawing and writing stories."{{Cite web |url=http://www.cressidacowell.co.uk/q-and-a.asp |title=Cressida Cowell | F.A.Q's | Children's Author |access-date=4 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010162735/http://www.cressidacowell.co.uk/q-and-a.asp |archive-date=10 October 2014 |url-status=dead }}

Cowell attended Keble College, Oxford where she studied English, and she also attended Saint Martin's School of Art and Brighton University where she learned illustration. She studied at Marlborough College (1982–84).{{Cite web |date=29 September 2019 |title=Children's Laureate, and former Marlborough student, entertains at LitFest |url=https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/17934537.cressida-cowell-thrills-inspires-marlborough-litfest/ |access-date=15 January 2023 |website=The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=How to Train Your Pupils - Tes meets Cressida Cowell {{!}} Tes Magazine |url=https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/how-train-your-pupils-tes-meets-cressida-cowell |access-date=15 January 2023 |website=www.tes.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=School Memories: Cressida Cowell |url=https://www.independentschoolparent.com/school/cressida-cowell-on-her-time-at-marlborough-college-wiltshire |access-date=15 January 2023 |website=www.independentschoolparent.com |date=19 February 2016 |language=en |last1=Parent |first1=Independent School }}

Cressida Cowell presently lives in London[http://www.davidhigham.co.uk/html/Clients/Cressida_Cowell DavidHigham.Co.UK] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106031316/http://www.davidhigham.co.uk/html/Clients/Cressida_Cowell |date=6 January 2010 }} [https://web.archive.org/web/19960101/http://www.davidhigham.co.uk/html/Clients/Cressida_Cowell Archive.org link] with her husband Simon, a former director and interim CEO of the International Save the Children Alliance; daughters Maisie and Clementine; and son Alexander.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cressidacowell.co.uk/about-cressida-cowell.asp |title=Official website – About me |access-date=30 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100402235016/http://www.cressidacowell.co.uk/about-cressida-cowell.asp |archive-date=2 April 2010 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news|last=Hutton|first=Caroline|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/author-cressida-cowell-on-how-she-proved-her-teachers-wrong-lr6zbn88r|title=Author Cressida Cowell on how she proved her teachers wrong|work=The Sunday Times magazine|date=25 April 2021|access-date=25 April 2021}} {{subscription required}}

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{{main|How to Train Your Dragon (novel series)}}

• How to Train Your Dragon (2003)
• How to Be a Pirate (2004)
• How to Speak Dragonese (2005)
• How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse (2006)
• How to Twist a Dragon's Tale (2007)
• A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (2008)
• How to Ride a Dragon's Storm (2008)
• How to Break a Dragon's Heart (2009)
• How to Steal a Dragon's Sword (2011)
• How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel (2012){{cite news|last=Chilton|first=Martin|title=How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel, by Cressida Cowell: review|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/children_sbookreviews/9593456/How-to-Seize-a-Dragons-Jewel-by-Cressida-Cowell-review.html|accessdate=31 January 2013|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=8 October 2012}}
• How to Betray a Dragon's Hero (2013)
• How to Fight a Dragon's Fury (2015)

• That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown (2007)
• Emily Brown and the Thing (2007)
• Emily Brown and the Elephant Emergency (2010)
• Cheer Up Your Teddy Bear, Emily Brown! (2011)
• Emily Brown and Father Christmas (2018)

• The Wizards of Once (2018)
• The Wizards of Once: Twice Magic (2019)
• The Wizards of Once: Knock Three Times (2020)
• The Wizards of Once: Never and Forever (2020)

• The Twins Take on T. Rex (2019)
• The Twins Discover a Diplodocus (2019)
• The Twins Meet a Massospondylus (2019)
• The Twins Climb a Camarasaurus (2019)
• The Twins Play with a Plesiosaur (2019)
• The Twins Help a Hadrosaur (2019)
• The Twins Have a Picnic with a Spinosaurus (2019)
• The Twins Track Down a Triceratops (2019)
• The Twins Meet a Mystery Dinosaur (2019)
• The Twins Save a Stegosaurus (2019)
• The Twins Meet a Hatzegopteryx (2019)
• The Twins Meet Two Tyrannosaurs (2019)

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• The Twins Follow a Polar Bear (2020)
• The Twins Meet a Quagga (2020)
• The Twins Help a Pink Dolphin (2020)
• The Twins Discover a Dodo (2020)
• The Twins Walk With a Woolly Mammoth (2020)
• The Twins Track a Tiger (2021)
• The Twins Meet a Monkey (2021)
• The Twins Greet a Great Auk (2021)
• The Twins Pursue a Penguin (2021)
• The Twins Run After a Rhino (2021)
• The Twins Watch a Whale (2021)
• The Twins Seek a Saola (2021)

• Can Trees Talk? (2021)
• Do Fish Glow in the Dark? (2021)
• Do Spiders Have Pets? (2021)
• Do Koalas Have Fingerprints? (2021)
• Why Do Stars Twinkle? (2021)
• Can Animals Walk on Water? (2021)
• Is the Middle of the Earth Hot? (2021)
• Why is the Sky Blue? (2021)
• Can Wolves See in the Dark? (2022)
• Can it Snow in the Desert? (2022)
• Is There Life at the Bottom of the Deepest Ocean? (2022)
• Can Butterflies Taste With Their Feet? (2022)

• Little Wonder (1998)
• Little Bo Peep's Library Book (1999)
• Don’t Do That, Kitty Kilroy (1999)
• What Shall We Do with the Boo-Hoo Baby (2001)
• Hiccup the Viking Who Was Seasick (2001)
• One Too Many Tigers (2001)
• Claydon Was a Clingy Child (2002)
• Super Sue (2003)
• Daddy on the Moon (2005)
• Super Sue at Super School (2005)
• There's No Such Thing as a Ghostie (2005)
• Little Bo Peep’s Troublesome Sheep (2009)
• The Story of Tantrum O'Furrily (2018)
• Which Way to Anywhere (2022)
• Which Way Round the Galaxy (2023)

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• 2006 Nestlé Children’s Book Prize, Gold Award, 0–5 years category: That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell & Neal Layton (Orchard Books){{Cite web|url=https://www.booktrust.org.uk/404|title=Error Page | BookTrust|website=www.booktrust.org.uk}}
• 2018 Blue Peter Book Award, Best Story category: The Wizards of Once (Hodder Children's Books){{cite web |title=Blue Peter Book Awards 2018 |url=https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/awards-and-prizes/current-prizes/blue-peter-book-awards/blue-peter-book-awards-archive/blue-peter-book-awards-2018/ |website=www.booktrust.org.uk |accessdate=29 July 2018}}
• 2019 Children’s Laureate

Cowell was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to children's literature.{{London Gazette|issue=63135|supp=y|page=B17|date=10 October 2020}}

In 2021, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).{{cite magazine|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/rsl-announces-project-promote-reading-schools-1267506|title=RSL launches three-year school reading project as new fellows announced|first=Sian|last=Bayley|magazine=The Bookseller|date=6 July 2021|access-date=6 July 2021}}

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• [http://www.cressidacowell.co.uk/ Cressida Cowell] (official site)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140625100226/http://www.howtotrainyourdragonbooks.com/ How To Train Your Dragon novel series] (official site)

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{{s-ttl |title=Children's Laureate of the United Kingdom |years=2019–2022 }}

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Category:1966 births

Category:Living people

Category:British children's writers

Category:Writers from London

Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford

Category:Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art

Category:Alumni of the University of Brighton

Category:Daughters of viscounts

Cressida

Category:British women novelists

Category:21st-century English novelists

Category:21st-century English women writers

Category:DreamWorks Animation people

Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire

Category:British women science fiction and fantasy writers

Category:English fantasy writers

Category:How to Train Your Dragon

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

Category:People educated at Marlborough College