Meet the author

A.F. Harrold.

Writer · United Kingdom · b. 1975

A.F. Harrold: British poet and middle-grade author behind The Imaginary (with Emily Gravett) and The Song from Somewhere Else (with Levi Pinfold) — slightly melancholy, image-rich fiction for ages 9–12.

A.F. Harrold is a British poet and author best known for The Imaginary (2014, illustrated by Emily Gravett), a middle-grade novel about a girl and her imaginary friend, with a strong haunted-emotional register, and The Song from Somewhere Else (with Levi Pinfold on art). Harrold writes for both children and adults, with a strong sense of poetic rhythm carrying into his middle-grade fiction. His voice is slightly melancholy, image-rich and morally serious, in the territory of David Almond and Frank Cottrell-Boyce. The Imaginary has been adapted into a 2024 Netflix animated film. A reliable contemporary UK middle-grade author for ages 9–12 ready for emotionally substantial fiction.