Cornelia Funke

Cornelia Funke is an award-winning German children’s author, born in Dorsten in 1958. After graduating from university, she worked for three years as a social worker on an educational project for children from difficult and deprived backgrounds. Following a post-graduate course in book illustration at the Hamburg State College of Design, she worked as a designer of board games and as an illustrator of children’s books before starting to write her own.
Cornelia’s books have been translated from German into 35 different languages, and include Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath, The Thief Lord, Dragonrider and Igraine the Brave, and Reckless.
A film adaptation of The Thief Lord came out in 2006 and the Hollywood production of Inkheart was released in 2008.
Cornelia lives in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, with her daughter Anna and her son Ben and their wonderful and crazy dog Luna (aka Looney).
Photo credit © Gillian Crane
Follow Cornelia on Twitter @CorneliaFunke