Laurence Daren King (born 1972 in Harlow, Essex) is an English novelist and children's writer.

His debut novel, Boxy an Star, made the shortlist for the Guardian First Book Award and the ten finalists for the Booker Prize in 1999.

He won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize gold medal in the 6 to 8-year-old readers category for Mouse Noses on Toast in 2006.

[4] The same year he contributed to a book of erotica published by Zadie Smith when she was writer in residence at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

The editors of the anthology, Nicholas Blincoe and Matt Thorne, appear in his novel Jim Giraffe as the characters Mr Bingo and Ape Hands.