Biography
David Farr was born in 1969 in England. He studied at Cambridge University and has had a distinguished career as a playwright, director and screenwriter. He was Joint Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill from 1995 to 1998 and has directed productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and theatres across Europe and America.
As a screenwriter, Farr wrote the television series The Night Manager (2016), adapted from John le Carré's novel, for which he received a BAFTA nomination. He also created and wrote Hanna (2019–2021) for Amazon Prime.
The Book of Stolen Dreams (2021) was his debut children's novel. It drew on his theatrical background — the book's world-building has the quality of a set designer's imagination, richly detailed and internally consistent — and his experience writing political drama for adults. The novel's themes of authoritarianism, the power of stories, and the courage required to preserve them are handled with a political seriousness unusual in children's fantasy.
Farr has spoken about wanting to write a book that children could read with genuine excitement while engaging with ideas that matter — the relationship between political power and cultural freedom, the price of keeping stories alive.