^McCrum, Robert (13 September 2013). "Francesca Simon: 'When I started out, people would ask: "When will you write for adults?"'". theguardian.com. Retrieved August 11, 2015. Her father, Mayo Simon, was an American screenwriter who graduated from educational public television (KETC) programmes to Hollywood during the early 1960s. Simon, who says she is 'very obviously the eldest' of four, was brought up in a nomadic, hand-to-mouth but happily chaotic Jewish American family home. . . . By the time she went to college, she had lived in California, England and France, but considers herself to be very much a West Coaster.