The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

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Chris Riddell

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-10-18

Chris Riddell was born April 13, 1962, in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of a liberal Anglican vicar opposed to apartheid; the family relocated to England when he was one year old. He attended Archbishop Tenison's Grammar School in Kennington and studied illustration at Brighton Polytechnic, where he was taught by renowned illustrator Raymond Briggs. Riddell worked as an illustrator for The Economist during the 1980s before joining The Observer in 1995 as a political cartoonist, a role he has continued for decades, and he also serves as cover artist for Literary Review magazine. As an illustrator he is best known for his long creative partnership with author Paul Stewart on The Edge Chronicles, and as an author-illustrator in his own right for the Ottoline and Goth Girl series; he has also illustrated numerous classics, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Hunting of the Snark, and Just So Stories. Riddell has won three Kate Greenaway Medals (2001, 2004, and 2016), making him the award's first three-time winner, three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes, and the 2013 Costa Book Award for Children's Books. He served as UK Children's Laureate in 2015 and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2019. He is married to illustrator and print-maker Joanne Burroughes; their daughter Katy Riddell is also a children's book illustrator, and the family lives in Brighton with a second home in Norfolk.

Universe(s)

The Edge Chronicles

  • Core Canon books: 13
  • Current rank: #135 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.18
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Goth Girl

  • Core Canon books: 4
  • Current rank: #354 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.03
  • Award recognitions: 1 won

Books

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

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