New Horrid Henry book to mark series' 25th anniversary in 2019

Francesca Simon is publishing a new Horrid Henry book in 2019 with Hachette Children's Group as part of the series' 25th birthday celebrations.

Horrid Henry: Up, Up and Away, illustrated by Tony Ross, will contain four new stories ("Horrid Henry: Up, Up and Away", "Horrid Henry Changes History", "Horrid Henry Steals the Show" and "Horrid Henry and the Zoom of Doom"). 

As well as coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the first Horrid Henry book published, the new book will be the 25th to be published and will also include the 100th Horrid Henry story.

The series, formally brought to a close in 2015, launched in 1994, since which time it has been translated into 31 languages and sold over 21 million copies worldwide. Through Nielsen, the books have shifted almost 10 million copies for £46m, with Horrid Henry Robs the Bank the series' bestseller at 282,533 copies sold. It also inspired a television series produced by Novel Entertainment Limited for CITV.

The new book is slated for publication on 21st March 2019. Ruth Alltimes, senior group publisher at Hachette Children’s Group, acquired world rights through Simon's agent Rosemary Sandberg.

Alltimes said: "Horrid Henry is a publishing phenomenon – a whole generation has grown up revelling in his wickedly funny antics, so we are delighted to have a new set of stories from Henry’s genius creator, Francesca, just in time for this all-important birthday. Tony has done a fabulous job too, of bringing Henry to life once more. We look forward to seeing Henry soar in 2019."

Simon said: "It was a great joy for me to drop back into Horrid Henry’s world, and rediscover all the reasons I’ve always loved writing about him. 25 books, 25 years, and 100 stories seemed the perfect way to round off Henry’s gleeful, devil-may-care adventures."

Accompanying the acquisition is a re-design of all the core storybooks in the Horrid Henry backlist, including "a bright and bold new logo and jacket design", which will be re-released throughout 2019.

The anniversary will furthermore be celebrated with an extensive marketing and publicity campaign, including high-profile experiential activity during the Easter holidays, partnerships, digital advertising, influencer outreach, library activity and stand-out point of sale materials.