Samantha Shannon

Samantha Shannon was born and raised in London, England. She attended an Anglican primary school, which inspired her to write The Priory of the Orange Tree—the school placed great emphasis on teaching an idealized version of the story of Saint George and the Dragon, which Shannon disliked for various reasons from a young age. As an adult, she went on to study English Language and Literature at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Though she wrote her first (still unpublished) manuscript at age 15, Shannon achieved immense early fame when she published her first novel, The Bone Season, at age 19. The first in a seven-part series, it was nominated for the British Fantasy Awards. Shannon took a break from the Bone Season books to write and publish The Priory of the Orange Tree, which was released in 2019. While it was initially intended to be a standalone novel, she’s since written two more novels that take place in the same universe.