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Meet author of ‘Die Hard with fairies’
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| PUBLISHING SENSATION: Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl books which he describes as Die Hard with fairies'. Inset, below, the teenage hero hailed |
ONE is a mild-mannered, family-orientated former teacher with a wife and two sons.
The other is a teenage criminal genius, the spawn of generations of n'er-do-wells who have used their cunning to amass great wealth.
Together they have become the teen-read publishing sensation of the new millennium, a cool alternative to Harry Potter, beloved of parents and teachers alike for their ability to get the nose of even the most recalcitrant young reader wedged in a book.
They are, of course, softly-spoken Irishman Eoin - pronounced Owen - Colfer and his literary alter-ego Artemis Fowl.
Fowl is the teenage son of a criminal mastermind who, in his first outing, discovered the existence of fairies and took one hostage, demanding a ransom.
Since then, he has embarked on four different world-saving adventures with his weapons-savvy bodyguard Butler, skilled fairy police officer Captain Holly Short and the centaur Foaly, the fairy police force's sardonic technical genius.
As each story unfolds, Artemis becomes slightly more human and develops more of a conscience. In the sixth book - Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox which was published to great acclaim last month - he finds himself going back five years to save his mother's life and face his gravest foe, his 10-year-old self.
It is mind-tingling stuff, compulsive reading - described as Die Hard with fairies' by its author - and Eoin is currently embarked upon a transAtlantic tour to meet his thousands of fans.
When I catch up with him, he is taking a well-deserved break in France with his family the week before the tour started. The phone line is echoey and the air rings with the beachy' sounds of kids larking about.
"It's great over here," he says. "We are all lounging around and the weather is perfect. I keep texting my friends back home and taunting them about the weather!"
Eoin arrives at Lighthouse in Poole on Tuesday, August 12 for an afternoon of Fairies, Fiends and Flatulence.
"We are travelling in this huge, ghastly bus, like a pop star bus that has the Artemis Fowl logo branded all over it," Eoin sighed. "It's part of my contract. I think they should strap me to the front of it as we rumble through small villages and I can wave at everyone."
Artemis came about while Eoin was still teaching.
"I had loads of ideas floating round my head, one of them to do with leprechauns, which you have to do if you are Irish, it's written into your contract," he said.
"I also wanted to write a book with a James Bond villain. Then I thought you could combine the two and have the James Bond villain kidnapping the fairy and then slowly, I realised that my villain - Artemis Fowl - was actually my hero and I had to give him a conscience."
The first book was published in 2001 and was immediately swooped upon by young readers.
"It is the greatest praise I can have, when parents come up to me and say their child never read until he picked up one of my books," said Eoin, the former teacher in him glowing with quiet pride.
But not everyone is impressed with his creation. He says his sons treat anything he has written with revulsion - although they may come round in time' - and his family keep him grounded.
"I don't really buy into the whole fame thing to be honest," he said. "I would love to get a tattoo but I'm too old. Maybe if I was just starting out and was 22, maybe then it would be nice. But now I'm 43, I've got a lovely wife and two children and I'm too old for all that.
"In any case, I've got four brothers and they would pummel me into the earth if I started playing up like that!"
Artemis Fowl isn't Eoin's only literary creation however. He has also written several other adventure books as well as Benny and Omar and Benny and Babe, about a young lad and the trials and tribulations of growing up at home and abroad.
"I do like to step away from Artemis Fowl," he confessed. "I have been writing him for 10 years and I need to get away to keep it fresh. One out of every three books I write is an Artemis Fowl and the others are something completely different. It's like taking a holiday and returning to him is like coming home."
Artemis Fowl: Fairies, Fiends and Flatulence is at Lighthouse in Poole at 3pm on Tuesday, August 12, not Monday, August 11 as it says in the venue brochure. Tickets are £8.50 from the booking office on 0844 406 8666.
9:19am Friday 1st August 2008
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