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Mary Hoffman was born in a “dull little town” which grew up around the railways. Her father worked for the railways, as did all the males of the family on both sides. Just before she was three, her family moved to London, where her father had a job in an office under the ground at Waterloo (which could only be reached by a maze of subterranean passages). At Primary School she wrote plays which her friends performed.
When she passed the 11+, Mary went on to an independent girls’ school in Dulwich on a scholarship — which was a big culture shock.
In 1964 she went up to Cambridge (Newnham College) to read English Literature and in 1968-70 took a diploma in linguistics at University College London. In 1970 she started writing her first book, which was published in 1975 as White Magic. Since then, she have written more than eighty books for children, including the picture book Amazing Grace , the Stravaganza series of novels and the anti-war anthology Lines in the Sand. The first of the Stravaganza novels, City of Masks, was her longest book since the first (which was incidentally set in Italy). But City of Flowers is longer still.
Mary married Stephen Barber in 1972, who is half-Indian, and they have three daughters. The eldest one, Rhiannon Lassiter, is a published writer of Science Fiction/Fantasy. The second is an actor (Rebecca) and the third (Jessica) is training to be an architect.
Mary and Stephen moved from London to a big old converted barn in West Oxfordshire in early 2001 and most of City of Masks was written in Mary’s lovely new study there, which is green and white, with French windows onto the garden, a silver mask on the notice board, and a vase of peacock feathers in the fireplace.
The sequel, City of Stars, was published in September 2003. Mary had a terracotta tile of a flying horse, bought in Siena to inspire her while she was writing it, and a shield featuring the ram of the Valdimontone district of that city, where the Palio race is held twice each summer. The third book in the series, City of Flowers, was started in Florence in October 2003 (see Mary’s Florentine Diary on www.maryhoffman.co.uk) and published in March 2005.
Mary still attends Italian literature classes each week in Oxford, produces four issues of the children’s book review magazine Armadillo every year, and reads voraciously. She lost her little red Burmese cat, Kichri, in February 2005 but is getting three kittens in July.
Stravaganza: City of Masks by Mary Hoffman:
A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
A Booklist Editors’ Choice
Stravaganza: City of Stars by Mary Hoffman:
A Booklist Editors’ Choice
VOYA’s Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers
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