Sufiya Ahmed

Sufiya Ahmed is a British author of children's literature. Her work includes the young adult (YA) novel Secrets of the Henna Girl and the middle-grade Rosie Raja and Time Travellers series. She is also known for writing a modern continuation of Enid Blyton's The Famous Five.

Early life Born at her grandmother's house with origins in Surat, India, Ahmed moved to England with her mother and grew up in Bolton, Greater Manchester and Leytonstone, East London.

Career Ahmed began her career working in advertising and as a researcher in the House of Commons. Her debut young adult (YA) novel Secrets of the Henna Girl was published in 2012. Secrets of the Henna Girl won a 2013 Redbridge Children's Book Award in the Teenage category and was shortlisted for a PPC Award and a Sheffield Children's Book Award. Ahmed also won Published Writer of the Year at the 2012 Brit Writers Awards.

Ahmed returned to writing in 2020 with the picture book Under the Great Plum Tree, which made the USBBY Outstanding International Book List. She also started a biographical series with My Story: Noor-un-Nissa Inayat Khan. This was followed by My Story: Sophia Duleep Singh in 2022.

In 2022, Bloomsbury Education acquired the rights to publish Ahmed's World War II-set Rosie Raja series. Rosie Raja: Churchill's Spy was a Read for Empathy collection pick. The third book in the series Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker won Best Crime Fiction for Children at the 2025 CrimeFest Awards.

Ahmed was commissioned by Hachette UK to write modern day-set books continuing Enid Blyton's The Famous Five series. Also in 2023, Little Tiger (a Hardie Grant Publishing imprint) acquired the rights to publish Ahmed's middle-grade Time Travellers series.

In 2025, Andersen Press acquired the rights to publish the middle-grade adventure novel Escape from the Child Snatchers.