The Library

A collection of the works of Frances Hardinge, together with information about awards and prizes she has won.

A Face Like Glass

In the underground city of Caverna the world's most skilled craftsmen toil in the darkness to create delicacies beyond compare – wines that can remove memories, cheeses that can make you hallucinate and perfumes that convince you to trust the wearer, even as they slit your throat. The people of Caverna are more ordinary, but for one thing: their faces are as blank as untouched snow. Expressions must be learned, and only the famous Facesmiths can teach a person to show (or fake) joy, despair or fear – at a price.

Into this dark and distrustful world comes Neverfell, a little girl with no memory of her past and a face so terrifying to those around her that she must wear a mask at all times. For Neverfell's emotions are as obvious on her face as those of the most skilled Facesmiths, though entirely genuine. And that makes her very dangerous indeed…

Twilight Robbery (also known as Fly Trap)

As dusk approaches, the good people of Toll-by-day slam shut their doors and tremble. New openings appear in the shadows, a black carriage rumbles through the streets and a wicked underworld emerges. It is time to discover Toll-by-Night – and it's a very different place.

Black-eyed orphan Mosca Mye and conman Eponymous Clent are down on their luck. Again. So when they find themselves embroiled in a daring kidnap plot, the whiff of money is too tempting to resist. Before she knows it, Mosca is trapped in Toll's deadly night city on a mission to rescue a girl she can't stand with only a midwife, a murderous goose and a war-crazed dandy knight to help her…

Twilight Robbery is the long awaited sequel to Fly by Night.

Macmillan 2011

Gullstruck Island (also known as The Lost Conspiracy)

On Gullstruck Island the volcanoes quarrel, beetles sing danger and occasionally a Lost is born… In the village of the Hollow Beasts live two sisters. Arilou is a Lost - a child with the power to depart her body and mind-fly with the winds – and Hathin is her helper. Together they hide a dangerous secret. Until sinister events threaten to uncover it. With a blue-skinned hunter on their trail and a dreadlocked warrior beside them, they must escape. Can the fate of two children decide the future of Gullstruck Island? Discover a dazzling world, a breathtaking heroine… and an incredible adventure. For on the island of Gullstruck nothing is exactly as it seems! With a cast of larger-than-life characters, this is a richly imagined adventure no child will be able to put down – or ever forget!

Macmillan 2009

Verdigris Deep (also known as Well Witched)

When Josh, Ryan and Chelle miss their bus home they decide to take coins from a wishing well to pay for a ride. But this decision turns out to have some surprising and frightening consequences.

Macmillan 2007

Fly By Night

In a fractured Realm, struggling to maintain an uneasy peace after years of civil war and religious tyranny, a 12-year-old orphan and a homicidal goose become the accidental heroes of a revolution.

Macmillan / Harper Collins 2005

Short stories

Frances' stories have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Look out for her story 'Payment Due' in the recently released Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, a collection of witchy stories by eighteen celebrated authors.

Awards and prizes

Frances' short fiction and novels have won or been shortlisted for a whole range of awards, both in her native UK and elsewhere.