Sally Green

Green was born in 1961[1] and grew up around Lytham[2] in England. She studied mining geology[3] and graduated from Imperial College London in 1983.[4][5] After she completed her degree, she worked for an industry publishing firm, and then trained to become an accountant.[4] She worked as an accountant until 2001.[5][6]

After becoming a mother, she stopped working as an accountant for four years.[4][7] She told The Daily Telegraph, "I loved being at home with the baby. We had a huge garden so I kept chickens, grew vegetables and became a complete earth mother."[4] She began developing the Half Bad story after going to a storytelling weekend at the Festival at the Edge in Shropshire.[4] After her son began school, she took online English literature and creative writing courses at the Open University.[4][7]

Green began writing a novel in 2010, and completed a manuscript that was rejected by every agent she contacted.[4][7] She rewrote the novel, and told Publishers Weekly, "That first attempt was quite different from Half Bad, but it got me thinking about writing another story in that world."[7][4]

She sent the revised manuscript to the one agent who had previously sent her encouragement, Claire Wilson, and they were soon handling offers that ultimately resulted in a 1 million pound advance for Half Bad.[4] In 2013, bidding wars for the rights of her work included the rights for a film won by Fox 2000 and Karen Rosenfelt, the producer of The Twilight Saga.[8][9]

In 2014, Half Bad was published, the first book in a trilogy where according to the Sunday Mail, "there are white witches and black witches. And in this modern-day Britain, humans and witches co-exist."[10] Green won the 2015 'Best Book for Teens' in the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Half Bad,[11] and her second book continued the Half Bad story with Half Wild in 2015.[12]

In 2014, Green also published the short story "Half Lies", and in 2015, the short story "Half Truths", both related to the Half Bad trilogy as prequels.[13] The final book of the trilogy, Half Lost, was published in 2016. Green has cited Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte as an influence on her development of the Half Bad story.[14]

In 2018, Green published The Smoke Thieves, the first book in The Smoke Thieves trilogy,[15] followed by the sequel The Demon World in 2019,[16] and the conclusion The Burning Kingdoms in 2020.[17] In 2022, Netflix released one season of The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself series, a show based on the Half Bad books.[13][18]

Green is married and has a son.[4] She lives in Warrington, Cheshire, England.[19]

• 2015 'Best Book for Teens' in the Waterstones Children's Book Prize
• Green is in the Guinness world book of Records for[20][21]
  • "Most translated children’s book by a debut author, pre-publication"[22]
  • "Most translated book by a debut author, pre-publication"[22]