16 MARCH 2020 http://www.writers-online.co.uk
I
f you didn’t have the good fortune to grow up with Artemis
Fowl, Eoin Colfer’s series of eight fantastical adventures of
the young criminal mastermind, you might well have relished
reading them to family members, or sneaking a peek when
the kids finally put them down. And if you did, you almost
certainly wished you could have the same rip-roaring reading
experience as an adult.
And now you can, because the bestselling Irish author has
written his first fantasy novel for adult readers. Highfire has all
the Colfer trademarks, being a smart genre-bending fantasy novel
starring Vern, a foul-mouthed, bad-tempered, vodka-swilling
dragon who wears a Flashdance T-shirt, The last of his kind, he
hides out in the Louisiana Bayou. Violent, funny and populated
by a cast of misfit adventurers, the ensuing story rollicks along at
a cracking pace.
It was, says Eoin, originally intended as a book for children.
‘Highfire almost happened by accident,’ he says. ‘That book
started as a children’s book – the first couple of chapters were old
grumpy character meets child and heart melts. I had a grumpy
dragon. And it didn’t feel right and I felt I was holding back. As
soon as I let the dragon be foul mouthed and drunken it felt like
a better character. But the writing is not that different. I don’t
have to think about suitability or what’s appropriate for children
and that’s the only difference.’
In common with Eoin’s children’s literature, though, the world
it creates is one of unbridled imagination.
‘Most kids’ books are demented but we’re not really allowedto bring that through to adult books,’ he says. ‘But the thing
with kids’ books is that they’re wonderfully inclusive of all sort of
things and kids’ books are leading in that.’
Having a sweary dragon as a lead character instead of a more
conventional human protagonist puts the reader squarely in a world
of untrammelled imagination. But Eoin sees him fitting in with his
way of doing things. ‘All my books have a fish out of water element
where I take someone not expected and propel them to leading
role. Doing that adds drama to a situation. I have to do that with
an element of caution so in its own world it has to be believable. In
Vern’s world it’s believable so you can suspend disbelief.’
Just as Highfire wasn’t originally meant to be a children’s book,
Vern wasn’t always supposed to be a dragon. ‘It was originally
going to be a Loch Ness monster kind of thing, set in the
Scottish highlands,’ says Eoin. ‘And I thought that if there was a
Nessie, it’s bad enough to be the last monster on earth but you
can’t even swim around your loch without a load of Doctor Who
fans turning up. But there are a lot of Nessie books, so I started
looking for an alternative monster. In Louisiana there’s the
Honey Island Swamp Monster – it sounded to me like a dragon.’
According to Louisiana folklore, the Honey Island Swamp
Monster is what happened when a circus train crashed in
the swamp and the escaped gorillas mated with the local
alligators. ‘How annoyed would you be if you were the last
dragon in the world and everyone thought you were half
gorilla, half crocodile?’ says Eoin. ‘That would make you
really grumpy. And it just felt right. So I felt I had the adultEoin Colfer’s first novel for adults has just the same enthusiasm and passion as his children’s
books, he just doesn’t need to worry about the sweary bits, he tells Tina Jackson