The Books we like : Artemis Fowl
"Someone MUST have done high-tech leprechauns"
interview Jean O'Sullivan [for the French release of Artemis Fowl Tome 1]
Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl
He had already written five other books for younger readers (including the best-sellers Benny and Omar, Benny and Babe, and The Wish List) but author Eoin Colfer really hit the jackpot with Artemis Fowl. This international bestseller for children of all ages features an eponymous 12-year-old criminal prodigy who takes on the fairy underworld, armed to the hilt with high-tech gadgetry. These days, the unassuming Wexford schoolteacher jets around the world on promotional trips, reads his fan mail (much of it in code) and is currently trying to convince Miramax to shoot the film Artemis Fowl around his native Hook Head (memo to Miramax: trust him). Eoin Colfer has barely the time for a pint in the local with his amused but unimpressed pals. Irish Eyes caught up with the author, his wife, son, mother-in law and parents at the launch of the French edition by Gallimard Jeunesse. At first I thought of calling Colfer the Tom Clancy of children's literature. However, I am pleased to report, Colfer took it as a compliment when I suggested that his work recalled the deranged cult thriller writer Carl Hiassen (memo to Eyes readers: check him out) -- particularly when discussing characters such as Ohm the Phlegmpot keeper at 10 a.m. However, to reassure parents, there are fewer bodies in Artemis Fowl but plenty of weird characters, a surreal imagination, and wicked sense of humour.
What is it about Wexford anyway? Is it the air? There's John Banville, Colm Toibin, yourself… There's Billy Roche too, and Gerard Whelan, an excellent kids' writer. It's got something to do with being a port. There's a big writing culture there. It's the kind of place where a young fella of 17 or 18 can write a play and have it put on at the local arts centre. That's what happened to me.
You describe Artemis Fowl as "Die Hard with fairies". What are your influences? I enjoy American comic crime writers like Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard. I like a good action movie. I also collect comic books. As for the fairies, I had that whole culture growing up in Ireland. I wanted to do something about leprechauns, but not an adaptation of folk tales because that had been done already, and very well.
The elite LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaisance) squads in Artemis Fowl wear night-vision goggles and wield nuclear arms - and that's just the females. Whatever happened to the little fellows with the green jackets and buckled shoes? I remembered as a child seeing Foster and Allen dressed as leprechauns on TV, and being really disgusted that to sell Ireland you had to dress like that. So I vowed to update the leprechaun. I began with the name LEPrecon and the idea developed from there. I was actually going to use it as the title. Then it struck me that someone must have done high-tech leprechauns already. I went through all the Irish kids' books at the local bookshop to see if the leprechauns had had a make-over yet. Amazingly, they hadn't. So I wrote the book really fast in case anyone beat me to it.
There's a long coded message running all the way through the book on the bottom of each page. What is it about? It's written in the coded language of the fairies' "Bible" and tells a parallel tale about a character called Ohm the Phlegmpot keeper, who will feature in the next book. Ohm augurs the future in phlegm.
Artemis Fowl is a brilliant name, but wasn't Artemis a Greek goddess? I saw all sorts of women's websites (including a witches coven) called Artemis. Well, I found it on a Greek website for boys' names. The original name was Archimedes Fowl but it was a bit too long. Artemis Fowl had a good ring to it, like Hannibal Lecter. All these Greek names have 20 meanings anyway.
As an international publishing success, with a film version in the pipeline, all this fuss about Artemis Fowl must be changing your life… It's been a year of travel and excitement, whereas teaching and writing are low-key activities. Sometimes I think you need training for this kind of thing! There is a certain loss of privacy, you're expected to be available. The first Artemis Fowl book was written in a bedroom in Wexford. Now, writing the second one, I have to filter out all the upheaval. But people at home don't treat me any differently.
Along with your children's books, you've written four plays. Have you ever been tempted to write adult fiction? I don't feel the need to "prove myself" by writing for adults. That said, I'm currently working on a comic novel for adults. It's very low-tech. It's about a police investigation in a town where there's no technology at all. Not even a magnifying glass…
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