Francis Spufford is an English writer and cultural historian. He is the author of several books, including the novels Red Plenty and Golden Hill, the non-fiction works Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense and The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading, and the memoir of his childhood, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. He is also the editor of The Oxford Book of English Verse.