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Georgia Byng

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Georgia Byng
Byng in 2022
Byng in 2022
BornGeorgia Mary Byng [1][a]
(1965-09-06) 6 September 1965 (age 59)[2]
Chelsea, London, England
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • illustrator
  • actress
  • film producer
EducationWestonbirt School
Alma materCentral School of Speech and Drama
Genre
Notable worksMolly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism (2002)
Notable awardsSheffield Children's Book Award
Stockton Children's Book Award
Salford Children's Book Award
Massachusetts Children's Book Award
Children3
Relatives

Lady Georgia Mary Caroline Byng[3] (born 6 September 1965) is a British children's writer, educator, illustrator, actress and film producer. Since 1995, she has published thirteen children's books, and co-written and co-produced one film. Byng has won the Stockton Children's Book Award,[4] the Sheffield Children's Book Award,[5] the Massachusetts Children's Book Award,[6] the Salford Children's Book Award and the Best Kid's Film at the Peace And Love Festival, Sweden. Most of Byng's books are magical realism adventures, with protagonists who overcome self-doubt and become self-empowered. The themes are often bullying and its darkness, kindness and its light, friendship and its warmth, and the power of the mind.

Early life

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Georgia Byng was born on 6 September 1965, at her family's home in London,[2] the elder daughter and second child of Thomas Edmund Byng, Viscount Enfield (later the 8th Earl of Strafford) and his first wife, Jennifer May (daughter of Irish politician William Morrison May). She grew up in a village, Abbots Worthy, near the city of Winchester in Hampshire. She has three brothers and one sister. Byng is the elder sister of Jamie Byng, publisher of Canongate Books.[7] Through her late stepfather, Sir Christopher Bland, Byng is the half-sister of Archie Bland, Guardian writer and sub-editor.[8]

Byng was educated at Princess Mead School and Nethercliffe School, Winchester, then from the age of 12 at Westonbirt School, an independent boarding school for girls in Gloucestershire.[9] She went to Peter Symonds, a sixth-form college in Winchester. From 1984 to 1987, she attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, a constituent college of the University of London in central London.[7][10]

Career

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Acting

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Byng worked as an actress from 1989 to 1990, appearing in the television series Screen Two, Dealers, and Capstick's Law.

Writing and illustration

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Byng's first published book was a comic-strip story that she wrote and illustraited – The Sock Monsters, about the small monsters who live in houses and eat people's socks. She followed this with Jack's Tree, a comic-strip book about a boy who saves a tree from being cut down. Her next book was The Ramsbottom Rumble, a short novel about two boys who save their grandmother from a con man.[11]

Byng's best-known work is Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism, a children's novel about a girl who finds a hypnotism book in the library and learns how to hypnotise people. This book was followed by Molly Moon’s Hypnotic Holiday, then Molly Moon Stops the World in which Molly learns how to stop time. In the next book, Molly Moon's Time Travel Adventure, Molly gets the gist of time travelling. In Molly Moon, Micky Minus and the Mind Machine she becomes a mind reader. In Molly Moon and the Morphing Mystery Molly uses her powers to morph into other forms, both people and animals. In the seventh Molly Moon book, Molly Moon and The Monster Music, Molly finds she is able to hypnotise people and animals by playing hypnotic music. Each of the Molly Moon series is set in a different place, from the UK to New York, to Los Angeles, then India (this one in the 19th century) to Switzerland in the future to Ecuador and Japan. Byng co-wrote the screenplay for Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism, the movie of her first book.[10]

After the Molly Moon books came Pancake Face, and The Girl with No Nose, and in January 2023, Albi, the Glowing Cow Boy,[12] an illustrated novel for 8- to 12-year-olds about a calf who eats big white milk mushrooms, then becomes super-intelligent and escapes an abattoir. Like Byng's other books, this book travels across the world. Its protagonist, Albi champions compassion towards other beings and plant-based eating and this being a solution to climate change. Byng is with Caradoc King and Millie Hoskins at London literary agency United Agents.[13]

Production

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In 2015, Byng was the producer for Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism, the film adaptation of her book.[10]

Personal life

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Byng married Daniel Chadwick in 1990; they divorced in 1995. They have a daughter, Tiger Chadwick.

Byng married artist Marc Quinn. They divorced in 2014. They have two sons - Lucas Quinn and Sky Quinn.[14][15][16][citation needed]

Byng is now engaged to musician, Guy Pratt.

Awards

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  • 2003: Sheffield Children's Book Award (for Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism)[5]
  • 2004: Stockton Children's Book Award (for Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism)[4]
  • 2004: Salford Children's Book Award (for Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism)[17]
  • 2006: Massachusetts Children's Book Award (for Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism)[5]

Publications

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Selected works include:

  • The Sock Monsters (Orion Publishing Group, 1995)
  • Jack's Tree, illustrated by Lucy Su (A & C Black, 2000)
  • The Ramsbottom Rumble, illustrated by Helen Flook (Black, 2001)
  • Pancake Face, illustrated by Mike Phillips (Barrington Stoke, 2014)
  • The Girl With No Nose, illustrated by Gary Blythe (Barrington Stoke, 2016[18])
  • Albi, The Glowing Cow Boy (UCLan Books, 2023[19])

Molly Moon series

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  1. Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism (2002)
  2. Molly Moon's Hypnotic Holiday (2003)
  3. Molly Moon Stops the World (2004)
  4. Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time-Travel Adventure (2005)
  5. Molly Moon, Micky Minus and the Mind Machine (2007)
  6. Molly Moon and the Morphing Mystery (2010)
  7. Molly Moon and the Monster Music (2012)

Notes

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  1. ^ Her birth was registered under her father's courtesy title, Viscount Enfield

References

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  1. ^ England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007
  2. ^ a b "Births". The Times. 7 September 1965. p. 1.
  3. ^ Morris, Susan (20 April 2020). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2019. eBook Partnership. ISBN 978-1-9997670-5-1. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Author over the Molly Moon to win book of the year award". The Northern Echo. 25 March 2004. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "Georgia Byng | Awards". LibraryThing. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Massachusetts Children's Book Award | MLN". www.minlib.nworkset. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  7. ^ a b Craig, Amanda Craig, "Harry's Heirs". 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2007. Archived 9 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Martinson, Jane (10 February 2006). "List addict prepared to tick off BT television". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2012. Based on an interview with Sir Christopher Bland.
  9. ^ "Westonbirt School". Archived 21 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Schools Guide 2012. Tatler (tatler.com). Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  10. ^ a b c "Georgia Byng". United Agents. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
  11. ^ "Other books by Georgia Byng – Molly Moon's World". www.mollymoonsworld.com. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  12. ^ Albi: The Glowing Cow Boy.
  13. ^ "Home". mollymoonsworld.com.
  14. ^ Marsh, Stefanie (22 January 2008). "The new Marc Quinn". Times Online. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2008. (subscription required)
  15. ^ Reynolds, Nigel (28 January 2002). "Children's writer mounts challenge to Harry Potter". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 June 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2007.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  16. ^ "Georgia Byng at Harper Collins.
  17. ^ "REGIONAL PRIZE | Salford Children's Book Award" (PDF). Books for Keeps. No. 145. March 2004. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  18. ^ Byng, Georgia. "The Girl With No Nose". Barrington Stoke. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  19. ^ "UCLan Publishing snaps up 'magical and unique' middle-grade title from Byng". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
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