Francesca joins the BBC's Love to Read campaign on Radio 4 Front Row

Francesca was recently invited by the BBC to read a classic book she’d never read before as part of the broadcaster’s ‘Love to Read’ season.

You can listen to her reading a book which she bought for the grand sum of 75p back in 1981 and which had been languishing on her bookshelves until asked by the BBC to discover a classic.

The book is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and is a crime novel set in seventeenth century New England.

Listen to hear Francesca describing the story, and then reading from it.

Fabulous Francesca Facts

"Families are great sources of comedy because they are about people trapped together. Only the parents chose to be there and the rest of you are stuck with these people that you might not necessarily like"

"Nobody feels emotions like children and with Henry, the war is constant and total. Anyone who has lived in a family has these shared experiences - the car journey from hell, nits or vomiting"

"I’ve never met a child who doesn’t love hearing stories. It’s a good way of introducing them to books and it’s a great way of getting them to understand stories that they might not be able to read themselves"

"We all love stories, it all helps making sense of the world"

"Horrid Henry speaks to the impish, rebellious child in all of us"

"My first book was called Papa Forgot and was published in 1993"

"I’ve written over fifty books"

"My birthday is 23rd February"

"I’m a bit scared of the dark"

"My hobbies are reading, cooking and going to the theatre"

"My favourite author is Anthony Trollope"

"My most disliked food is beetroot"

"My favourite colour is aquamarine"

"My favourite food is scallops"

Francesca Simon

Francesca joins the BBC’s Love to Read campaign on Radio 4 Front Row

Horrid Henry

Fabulous Francesca Facts