Photo album

Cornelia has picked out some photos for you. A colourful choice taken from a colourful life.

An exceptional interview

The magazine supplement of the German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" has a weekly interview format which is called "Sagen Sie jetzt nichts" ("Don't Say Anything Now"). For the award-winning feature, the newspaper asks questions and the interviewees have to act out their answers by gestures and facial expressions for the camera. In 2017 Cornelia gave that interview, and she enjoyed it very much.

Michael Orth
An exceptional interview

Alfonso Fuentes

This is Alfonso, whom Cornelia likes to call El Brujo, as he can talk to trees and make them flower. He had helped Cornelia plant and build and bring her property back to life after the long drought, and he and his men fought the 2018 California wildfires and saved Cornelia's house and barn, the donkeys and the ducks.

Michael Orth
Alfonso Fuentes

Jarpur

When Cornelia lived in Hamburg/Germany, she used to have an Icelandic horse. It was called Jarpur. His former owners actually wanted to have him butchered, saying he be of no use anymore. But a friend of Cornelia saved Jarpur from this cruel fate. Cornelia then attended to the horse and took care of him while he was put at a range and in a stable very close to Cornelia's home back then. When Cornelia moved to Los Angeles in 2005, friends looked after Jarpur. You could not ride him, never, for he was such a scaredy cat, and he needed a lot of care as he was plagued with an itchy eczema. The name Jarpur, by the way, is a common Icelandic name for horses meaning something like "the Brown One".

Michael Orth
Jarpur

Bambi Awards

In 2008, Cornelia recieved the Culture Bambi at the Bambi Awards 2008 Show in Offenburg, Germany. The laudatory speech was given by one of Germany's most beloved celebrities, the German comedian, TV presenter, author, and actor Hape Kerkeling.

Getty Images
Bambi Awards

Cornelia's horses

Back in the day, when Cornelia lived in Hamburg/Germany, she loved to spend time with horses. She has never ridden them, though, she only walked them :)
Cornelia's horses

Barry Cunningham

Barry Cunningham, Cornelia’s British publisher (Chicken House) AND the man who gave Joanne K. Rowling the chance to let Harry Potter escape from his cupboard beneath the stairs into a published book.

Michael Orth
Barry Cunningham

Cornelia and the Alster trail

While Cornelia was living in Hamburg, there was a creek running through her garden. Becoming a river further down its way, the Alster is really just a small creek at that point. Alongside the creek there was a quite popular hiking trail and that regularly resulted in hikers walking across our property. So one afternoon she sat down and painted a sign for her garden fence, exactly where the hikers always took the wrong turn. From then on there was an elephant showing them the way with his trunk: "Alsterwanderweg - da lang", "Alster trail - this way"
Cornelia and the Alster trail

Cornelia and Rafi Gavron

Cornelia and Rafi Gavron, who played Farid in the 2008 film adaptation of Cornelia's book Inkheart.
Cornelia and Rafi Gavron

New life on the farm

Cornelia hugging Mateo, the newborn donkey, his mother Esperanza watching them. Cornelia’s donkeys Esperanza and Zorro have different life stories. Zorro came from a ranch where horses were treated badly. That’s why it takes time to earn his trust. Esperanza used to be "a wild one" running with the wild mustangs. On the old avocado farm that Cornelia has bought in 2017 in Malibu/California, there was an empty stable and an adjoining small paddock. A peaceful new home for the donkey couple. In 2021 Esperanza gave birth to their son Mateo.
New life on the farm

Cornelia and Eduardo Garcia

Cornelia and Eduardo Garcia. In March 2016, Cornelia and Eduardo, owner of the Hamburg sound studio "German Wahnsinn", co-founded the audiobook label "Atmende Buecher" to publish all of Cornelia's future stories.

Michael Orth
Cornelia and Eduardo Garcia

The wedding board

In April 2021, Cornelia's daughter Anna got married. Cornelia painted a large wooden welcome board for the wedding guests. It also shows Anna and Mike's furry companions.
The wedding board

Cornelia's writing house in Beverly Hills

This was Cornelia's writing house in her garden in Beverly Hills, where she and her family lived during their first years in California (before she moved to Malibu). After breakfast Cornelia walked through the garden to her writing house – with a view of avocado and sycamore trees and her very happy dog Luna chewing a giant Mickey Mouse.
Cornelia's writing house in Beverly Hills

Cornelia and her children back in the day

Cornelia read countless books to her children Anna and Ben. She always read in different voices, sometimes gruffy like a grumpy pirate, sometimes soft and gentle like a wise dragon, sometimes shrill and excited like an angry young princess.
Cornelia and her children back in the day

Cornelia's notebooks

Cornelia has notebooks for notes, thoughts, and sketches before she starts writing, and then more books for the handwritten first draft. This one is filled with notes and sketches on her Mirrorworld characters.

Michael Orth
Cornelia's notebooks

Martina Nommel

Here we have Cornelia's wonderful literary agent for Spain and for all Spanish-speaking countries, Martina Nommel. She has already sold so many of Cornelia's books to Spain, that you have almost as many titles there as in Germany.
Martina Nommel

826 LA at Cornelia's farm in Malibu

In April 2019, 60 children, parents, and tutors of 826 LA visited Cornelia at her farm in Malibu. Ducks, donkeys, plants, pizza, painting, drawing, scavenger hunt. A Sunday in nature for city kids and the first event hosted by Cornelia's foundation "Rim of Heaven".

Michael Orth
826 LA at Cornelia's farm in Malibu

Rainer Strecker

The man behind the microphone is Rainer Strecker, Cornelia's German tongue, who reads almost all her audio-books in Germany. Rainer and Cornelia did many readings together. He does the male and Cornelia does the female voices. Cornelia finds it much more exciting to do it this way than just reading alone - and much more entertaining for the listener as well. Rainer is a well known German actor in theatre, TV and film.

Michael Orth
Rainer Strecker

Cornelia and Isabel Abedi

Cornelia and the German Children's and Young Adult book author Isabel Abedi. They are very close friends. Isabel lives in a former station house in Hamburg. Cornelia often stays there when she is on book tour through Germany.

Michael Orth
Cornelia and Isabel Abedi

The "Magical Worlds" exhibition

In 2017 Cornelia paid a visit to an exhibition of her illustrated work - "Cornelia Funke's magical worlds" - at the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. She was completely enchanted. In addition to Cornelia's illustrations, the museum created a shelter station for mythical creatures (Dragon Rider) and a Mirrorworld treasure chamber.

Michael Orth
The "Magical Worlds" exhibition

Hamburger Deern

Cornelia delightfully chomping on a fish bun at the Port of Hamburg. Hamburg is and remains her second hometown.

Michael Orth
Hamburger Deern

Coyote visit

One day Cornelia was watering the plants on her farm, she found this little guy sitting behind her cacti. The coyote pup lay there curled up and relaxed, looking directly at her, the whole time. After a while, its mother picked it up and off they ran.
Coyote visit

German Wahnsinn

In March 2016, Cornelia and Eduardo Garcia, owner of the Hamburg sound studio "German Wahnsinn", co-founded the audiobook label ATMENDE BUECHER to publish all of Cornelia's future stories. The photo shows Eduardo (on the right) and his colleague Philipp Feit (chief creative officer). The guy in the middle did not want to reveal his identity.

Michael Orth
German Wahnsinn

Meeting the readers

Meeting her readers is always a joy. This photo was taken during a stage event in Hamburg/Germany.

Michael Orth
Meeting the readers

Cornelia's first day at school
Cornelia's first day at school

Jake and Tabby

Brother and sister. Jake and Tabby, Cornelia's dogs. Cornelia is happy to see how well they get along with each other. They are Great Pyrenees Australian Shepherd Mix dogs.

Michael Orth
Jake and Tabby

The garage studio

When Cornelia lived on an old avocado farm in Malibu/California, she never used her garage for Rosa (that's her car's name ;). She converted it into an art studio.

Michael Orth
The garage studio

Cornelia y Friedrich Hechelmann

In September 2011, Cornelia and German painter and illustrator Friedrich Hechelmann opened the exhibition of Hechelmann's original illustrations of Cornelia’s book ‘Ghost Knight’. They met at the exhibition opening in Isny for the first time and got along straightaway as if they had been friends for years. Maybe it's because a long time before their first meeting they got to know and got into each other's art so intensely. Sometimes, then, one gets the feeling to meet the artists in the stories they have written or the paintings they have created.

Michael Orth
Cornelia y Friedrich Hechelmann

On the Thief Lord movie set

Cornelia with 'Mosca, Prosper, Bo, Scipio, Riccio and Hornet.' In 2004, Cornelia visited the set of the Thief Lord movie in Venice/Italy.

Warner Bros, 2006
On the Thief Lord movie set

Reunion in Hamburg

In September 2019, Cornelia went on a book tour through Germany. In Hamburg she met four of her artists in residence. Reunion at the German Wahnsinn Studio in St. Pauli. Miró, Anne, Sara-Christin and Inga ... they all stayed with Cornelia at her farm in spring 2019.

Michael Orth
Reunion in Hamburg

Cornelia and Adam Freudenheim

Cornelia at a hotel in her former hometown Hamburg during her "Pan's labyrinth" book tour in 2019. She met one of her favourite publishers, Adam Freudenheim from Pushkin Press. They talked about future book projects while having tea in her hotel room.

Michael Orth

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