Natasha Farrant

Natasha’s first YA novel, The Things We Did For Love, a dramatic love story set in occupied France during WW2, was published in spring 2012 by Faber. After Iris: The Diaries of Bluebell Gadsby (Puffin, 2013) , a warm, funny story about a chaotic London family, was the first in a series of four novels about the Gadsbys. Lydia, published by Chicken House in 2016, is a vivid reimagining of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice seen through the eyes of wild child Lydia. Her middle grade book The Children of Castle Rock was a Times Children’s Book of the Week in February 2018. Eight Princesses and a Magic Mirror was published in September 2019 by Zephyr and was one of the Guardian‘s Books of the Year.

Her recent titles include Voyage of the Sparrowhawk (Faber Children’s, 2020), which won the Times and Sunday Times Children’s Books of the Year and also took home the Costa in January 2021, and The Girl Who Talked to Trees (Zephyr, 2021). In 2023 Faber Children’s published The Rescue of Ravenwood, a beautiful, soulful, exciting story about guarding the extraordinary nature that surrounds us. It was chosen by The Times as their Children’s Book of the Week: ‘a sublime eco adventure by the sea… Farrant’s tale of a family quest to save a pocket of nature is a triumph.’ Her latest novel, The Secret of Golden Island (Faber, 2024) asks what two children will do to win an island in a life-affirming and compassionate tale.

Natasha lives in London with her husband and two daughters.

Photo courtesy of Annabel Moeller