Lesson I’ve learned from life: Children’s author Cressida Cowell don’t get hung up on being perfect

The one lesson I’ve learned from life: Children’s author Cressida Cowell says don’t get hung up on being perfect

  • Cressida Cowell, 55, who lives in London, is a bestselling children’s author
  • Said children terrified of mistakes but believes accidents happen for a reason
  • How To Train Your Dragon author named character Hiccup, meaning accident


Cressida Cowell, 55, made her name with the bestselling How To Train Your Dragon series. She has sold more than 11 million books and has been the Children’s Laureate since 2019. She lives in London with her husband, Simon, and children, Maisie, 23, Clementine, 20, and Alexander, 17. 

My husband has such a good maxim: ‘Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.’ I find that advice incredibly important for getting a task done. It’s very human to think, ‘Oh this is impossible’ and put off a job.

You can make mistakes and still something can be wonderful. You have to let things go sometimes.

As a children’s author, often I see children so terrified of making mistakes they scribble things out or tear up the page, and end up not being able to write anything because it’s not perfect. In order for something new to be discovered you have to take risks. I believe that accidents happen for a reason.

Children’s author behind How To Train Your Dragon series, Cressida Cowell, 55, (pictured) who lives in London, said she believes that accidents happen for a reason

It ties into why I created my character Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon; hiccup is another name for an accident.

Hiccup’s relationship with his father is quite similar to my own. My father was fearless and good at loads of things that I wasn’t good at. I was an imaginative, creative little girl and had to learn that I would make my own way in the world.

In my new series, The Wizards Of Once, my lead girl character, Wish, is dyslexic. On my visits to schools I have met a lot of children who have learning difficulties and it’s so easy for them to measure themselves against other children and think: ‘I’ll never be as good.’

They assume they can’t be a writer because they have trouble with the mechanics of reading and writing. You need to learn the rules of spelling, but you also need to carve out space for creativity and making mistakes.

I tell children: ‘Being a writer is not about your handwriting or spelling. It’s about your ideas.’ And you can just see the wheels in their heads turning and their eyes light up. The moral in all my books is about endeavour, and overcoming adversity and challenges. And not giving up or being overwhelmed.

The final book in Cressida Cowell’s The Wizards Of Once series, Never And Forever, is out now in paperback (£7.99, Hodder).