Subhadra Sen Gupta

Sen Gupta was born in Delhi. She holds a master's degree in history. She began writing in college, working as a copywriter for advertising agencies.[4]

Some of her works include Goodbye Pasha Begum! from The Puffin Book of Spooky Ghost Stories (a horror story where a girl holidaying in Delhi finds herself as a slave in the Mughal era), Bishnu - The Dhobi Singer (a dhobi boy who is taken under the tutelage of Tansen) and A Mauryan Adventure (the daughter of a soldier in Ashoka's army finds herself travelling the world). The Secret Diary of the World's Worst Cook (the child of two physicists who is bad at physics himself finds a diary written by a boy in a similar situation coming from a family of cooks)[5] is part of a book series, World's Worst, written in the diary format. This series also includes The Secret Diary of the World's Worst Cook.[1] A Flag, A Song And a Pinch of Salt features 19 freedom fighters of India and their inspiring stories.[6]

She has also written a book for TERI, Caring for Nature: Bapu and the Missing Blue Pencil.[1] Her 2015 book, A Children's History of India, was about the history of India written for children over the age of 10 years.[2] In 2020, she released The Constitution of India for Children (sourced from books written by Ramachandra Guha, Bipan Chandra, Granville Austin and Derek O'Brien)[7] and Mahal: Power and Pageantry in the Mughal Harem (about the social life of a harem in the Mughal era).

Her book, Mystery of the House of Pigeons, was adapted into a six-part television series by Feisal Alkazi as Khoj Khazana Khojher on Doordarshan. Her works have also been chosen as part of NCERT textbooks.[2] Three of her books, Twelve O'Clock Ghost Stories, Jodh Bai and A Clown for Tenali Rama have been awarded the White Raven Award at the Bologna Children's Book Fair.[3] In 2015, she was awarded the Bal Sahitya Puraskar by the Sahitya Akademi for her contribution to children’s literature in the English language.[2]