Frances Hardinge is a British children's writer. Her debut novel, Fly by Night, won the 2006 Branford Boase Award and was listed as one of the School Library Journal Best Books. She has also been shortlisted for and received a number of other awards for both her novels as well as some of her short stories.

Frances spent her childhood in a huge, isolated old house in a small, strange village, which inspired her to write strange, magical stories from an early age. She studied English at Oxford University and now lives in Oxford, England.