Eoin Colfer - Author event

Following the launch of Artemis Fowl And The Last Guardian on 10th July Eoin Colfer was at Broadway Cinema in Nottingham last night (12th July) giving a talk about the origins of the characters in the final book in the Artemis Fowl series.

The series was started in 2001 with "Artemis Fowl" and this is the eighth and final story.

When my youngest daughter was little, bedtime reading included Artemis Fowl and it was a time of day we both looked forward to - but while we read Artemis's adventures, Maryom sat off to one side - unmoved by it, clearly not a fan.

Shane Maxwell-Atkin introduced Eoin with some amazing facts about the series - it has been published in 44 countries and he challenged us to name 44 countries because he felt he would struggle.

Eoin's presentation, chat, performance - call it what you will - was funny and entertaining from the start and he set about explaining the inspirations for each character. Now this is where the non-fans could be left bored and kicking their heels but this was not the case as the stories related about each character were plot independent and each character was explained to the benefit of non-readers. Why would non-readers go though? Well, some of these events can feel like you are at a convention where every character really exists for the fans, but Artemis? Well the fans are children and the audience reflected this (I'm a big kid at heart anyway!) and kids seem to keep their feet on the ground more firmly than many adults. And the non-readers? They seemed to be the parents! They are missing out because Artemis is totally readable by all ages and bags of fun.

The end of the evening was a question and answer session and I was surprised and impressed by how many children asked questions - and questions about inspirations for characters and the order of creation (characters or worlds first). Eoin admitted to being surprised as well as he was used to children asking questions like 'What's your favourite colour?'.

I was delighted when I got the opportunity to review Artemis Fowl And The Last Guardian and while I have read and greatly enjoyed it, my daughter has now 'moved on' and shows no inclination to read it. But maybe in a few years time.

Another fantastic event organised by Waterstones so apart from book festivals around the country keep an eye out and you can get access to most every author at some time to ask questions of and/or get your copies of books signed.