Ransom Riggs is an American writer and filmmaker best known for the book Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Riggs was born in Maryland on a 200 year old farm, and grew up in Florida where he attended the Pine View School for the Gifted. He studied English literature at Kenyon College, and studied film at the University of Southern California. His work on short films for the Internet and blogging for Mental Floss got him a job writing The Sherlock Holmes Handbook which was released as a tie-in to the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. Riggs had collected curious vernacular photographs and approached his publisher, Quirk Books, about using some of them in a picture book. On the suggestion of an editor, Riggs used the photographs as a guide from which to put together a narrative. The resulting book was Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which made The New York Times Best Seller list. Another book inspired by old photographs, Talking Pictures was published by Harper Collins in October 2012. The sequel Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Children was released January 14, 2014. 

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