Inkheart

About Cornelia Funke

The German author Cornelia Funke was born in 1958 in Dorsten, Westphalia. As a child she dreamed of becoming an astronaut – until she discovered the military training involved so she trained to be social worker. During her time as a social worker, Cornelia discovered the kinds of stories that grasped their imaginations. These were the stories she wanted to illustrate – and ultimately to write – the kind that would appeal to bookish children as well as inspiring those children who hadn’t yet had many positive reading experiences. At the age of 35 Cornelia realised her true love of storytelling and became a full-time writer. She has since written over 40 titles ranging from picture books and short novels for young readers

Although she quickly became one of the most popular children’s authors in Germany, Cornelia Funke was hardly known in Britain or the United States – and had it not been for a keen young reader, this could still be the case. Barry Cunningham, the publisher of a small, innovative publishing house in rural England called The Chicken House, received a letter from a bilingual (English and German) young reader, who wanted to know why her favourite author wasn’t published in English. Barry set about the task of tracking down the latest title from Cornelia Funke, Herr der Diebe.

When the English translation, The Thief Lord, was published in the USA by Scholastic in 2002, it entered the New York Times bestseller list straightaway, and proceeded to climb to the number two position.

There has been enormous interest in Cornelia’s novels, with fierce bidding by film company executives for the rights. The Thief Lord movie, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Alexei Sayle, was released in Spring 2006.

Inkheart the movie is released on 12th December 2008, has a stellar cast that includes Helen Mirren as Elinor, Jim Broadbent as Fenoglio and Paul Bettany as Dustfinger.

Cornelia Funke lives in Los Angeles in the USA with her teenage daughter, Anna, and young son, Ben (Benjy). They have a crazy dog, Luna, nicknamed Loonie, and their house is crammed with books and DVDs.