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Cressida Cowell - Children's Author
Cressida Cowell grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland. The name of the island is a secret, but it was such a small island it wasn’t really big enough to have a name at all. There were no roads or shops or electricity on the island, just one house and a storm-blown wilderness of sea-birds and heather.
Every year, Cressida’s family spent four weeks of the summer, and two weeks of the spring, on the island. The family had to catch their own fish to eat. The house was lit by candle-light, and there was no telephone or television, so Cressida spent her time drawing and writing stories.
In the evening, Cressida’s father read the children tales of the Vikings, who had invaded this island Archipelago over half a millennium before, of the quarrelsome Tribes who fought and tricked each other, and of legendary dragons who were supposed to live in the caves in the cliffs. This was how Cressida herself first began to write stories about Vikings and dragons, back when she was eight or nine years old. Many years later, she turned her original childhood ideas into the book How to Train Your Dragon, featuring Hiccup the reluctant Viking, and his equally reluctant dragon, Toothless.
When Cressida wasn’t on the island, she was going to school at Marlborough College in Wiltshire where she met and became close friends with Lauren Child, a fellow author/illustrator and the creator of TV’s Charlie and Lola. Cressida and Lauren remain close friends. Indeed Lauren is godmother to Cressida’s daughter Clemmie.
After school, Cressida obtained a BA in English Literature from Oxford University, a BA in Graphic Design from St Martin’s and an MA in Narrative Illustration from Brighton.
Cressida wrote and illustrated her first picture book, Little Bo Peep’s Library Book, for Hodder Children’s Books in 1998. Her first novel for eight to twelve year olds, How to Train Your Dragon, was published to popular and critical acclaim in 2003: ‘The next big thing in children’s literature,’ wrote The Independent on Sunday. ‘Irresistibly funny, exciting and endearing,’ said The Times.
How to Train Your Dragon has now been published in over thirty languages. Film rights were sold to DreamWorks Animation in 2003 for a substantial sum and the filmed version was released into cinemas in March 2010. The 3D animated film from the studio that created Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (the directors of Lilo and Stich) and produced by Bonnie Arnold (who produced Toy Story).
Featured Books, with extracts by Cressida Cowell
Cressida Cowell
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third is back for a rollicking new adventure. A Viking with a difference, Hiccup is a great swordsman and dragon whisperer but this time he’s got a dragon rebellion on his hands as well as trying...
Featured in: 9+ readers | Books of the Month
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/10/2011
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Cressida Cowell
Hiccup the Hero has many attributes, including being a Dragon Whisperer. It’s a skill he learnt the hard way as these exploits reveal! Here also is an introduction to the key characteristics of the dragons and a Dragonese dictionary to...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
Hiccup the great Viking hero was not always such a star. He makes a mistake in his first Boarding an Enemy Ship Lesson by tackling a Roman Dragon Rustling ship with the fearsome Alvin the Treacherous on board. When Toothless,...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
Jokes flow thick and fast from this most original and inventive Viking adventure, which launched the career of a Viking with a difference. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock grew up at a time of dragons but he was not always a hero....
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
Jokes flow thick and fast from this most original and inventive Viking adventure, which launched the career of a Viking with a difference. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock grew up at a time of dragons but he was not always a hero....
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
Hiccup, the Viking hero in the world of entertaining and unusual adventures, is back for a new set of adventures on the Pirate Training Programme. Still being trained by Gobbler the Belch, Hiccup learns new skills to help as he...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock 111, master of all things Heroic, has a load of new challenges to complete…Now he must complete the Impossible Task, save Fishlegs from being fed to the Beast to and discover the secret of the Lost Throne....
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
A World Book Day 'Recommended Read' for 2011 Hiccup the Hero is back with a new adventure. This time the Venomous Vorpent is his enemy and it has already struck Fishlegs with the deadly Vorpentitis. Hiccup must find a way of...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
Hiccup has a new set of challenges. This time he has to get back to Berk from America in record time, battle against the deadly Polarserpents and win the Inter-Tribal Friendly Swimming Race – which is not so friendly after...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
The Isle of Berk is under threat. Hiccup’s latest challenge is to stop the volcano from exploding …To do so he must rescue the Fire Egg which has been stolen and return it to the Volcano and outwit the sword-claws...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/02/2010
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Cressida Cowell
The hilarious world of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock 111, a Viking hero with a difference! Armed with his sword the ‘Endeavour’, Hiccup sets out to complete yet another impossible task. (This is his eighth quest and they’ve all been full of...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers | Reluctant Readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/09/2009
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Cressida Cowell
Emily Brown and her old grey rabbit were an instant hit with children and parents everywhere when they burst onto the scene not long ago and won the 2006 Nestle prize. The book was called That Rabbit belongs to Emily...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/09/2008
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Cressida Cowell
More hilarious fun as Hiccup the Viking continues his pirate training programme enduring the disgusting food, learning dragonese and now getting lost in the Library Labyrinth with the Driller Dragons and Madguts the Murderous on the Prowl. Following both words...
Featured in: 7+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/06/2008
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Cressida Cowell
Emily Brown and her old grey rabbit were an instant hit with children and parents everywhere when they burst onto the scene not long ago and won the 2006 Nestle prize. The book was called That Rabbit belongs to...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 18/10/2007
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Cressida Cowell
Shortlisted for the Nestle Children's Award 2006 in the five and under category. Both author and illustrator are highly acclaimed in their own right and together in this absolutely exquisite picture they have surpassed even their own high expectations. Wonderfully...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 07/09/2006
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Cressida Cowell
This is side-splittingly funny, wonderfully written and sure to appeal to children from about 8 upwards. It’s pirates with a big twist that includes a toothless dragon and a raft of peculiar people. Enough said, it’s a laugh on every...
Featured in: 7+ readers | 9+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 15/07/2004
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Cressida Cowell
An entertaining story which will strike a chord with all parents! How can the animals stop the Boo Hoo baby from crying? Feeding him helps, as does bathing him and playing with him but, in the end, bedtime is the...
Featured in: Baby and Toddler
Format: Board Book - Released: 22/03/2002
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