Cressida Cowell grew up mostly in Central London. She has 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 has written and illustrated eight books in the popular Hiccup series. How to Train Your Dragon has reached over 100,000 sales and is now published in over 33 languages. A Dreamworks feature film is due to be released in 2010. Cressida lives in Hammersmith with her husband, three children and two cats.
Full of bright wit and brutal honesty, this is a brilliant book that launched a huge series ... This is a fantastic adventure that explores failure as well as success and weighs the cost of being different against the price of fitting in with sneaky maturity and shining humour * The List * Has a good story to it -- Jamie, aged 9 * Daily Record * Descriptive and flowing, Cowell's Dragon novels have become deserved hits at the cinema, too. * Time Out * Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon books fill every spread with scales and fangs and typographical jeux d'esprit * The Independent * Cowell is a master of storytelling...On a profound level, this series celebrates divergence and being true to oneself, teaching children that they don't have to be carbon copies of their parents * Hay Festival of the Arts * Wise, colourful and funny * Dorset Echo * Funny, thrilling and ideal for children needing to discover the hero inside themselves * The Times * Cressida Cowell's series of the memoirs of Hiccup the Viking are funny, outrageous and will lure in the most reluctant reader * The Spectator * Top stuff * The Daily Telegraph * Gripping adventure stories complete with quests and battles, a vivdly imagined alternative world * The Daily Telegraph * This book will definitely make you laugh out loud * Torquay Herald Express * Cowell's wittily written books have become today's childhood must-read stories * Books Quarterly (Waterstones) * What we have here is Harry Potter meets Blackadder. The result is a story that anyone with a tolerance of snot and gore would find richly entertaining * The Glasgow Herald * This light-hearted, well-illustrated mock saga would appeal to girls and boys. My Dad liked it too. More please. -- Geoffrey Truscott, aged 11 * The Glasgow Herald * Bulging with good jokes, funny drawings and dramatic scenes, it is absolutely wonderful * Independent on Sunday * I can't praise this wonderful adventure too highly -- Amanda Craig * Independent on Sunday * One of the most enjoyable and original children's stories I have heard in a long time * The Independent * Her genuinely fierce, intelligent and scary dragons nearly steal the show, but Hiccup and his diminutive sidekick ultimately come out on top, both displaying a proper hero's mix of quick wit, courage and loyalty * Kirkus * The start of the most original series for kids in ages. Funny, clever and great for the whole family to share * Dundee Courier * A laugh out loud romp of a Viking adventure * Observer * Hilarious * guardian.co.uk * Proper modern classics * Sunday Express * By turns hilarious and wise, it's never predictable, brilliantly illustrated and always delightful * The Times * Filled with thrilling adventure and action-packed heroes -- Charlotte Tarling, Year 6 * Country Child * If you haven't discovered Hiccup yet, you're missing out on one of the greatest inventions of modern children's literature -- Julia Eccleshare, Guardian's children's books editor Mentioned in the 100 Best Children's Books Ever (Novels) * The Daily Telegraph * The first in the successful series... perfect for tricky boy readers, as the action scenes are first-class. * The Sunday Telegraph *