BBC7

Eoin Colfer was born in Wexford Ireland in 1965. His parents were both teachers and he was even taught by his dad at primary school. His first serious attempt at writing was in sixth grade, when he wrote a play for his class about Norse Gods where everyone died in the end but him.

He followed in his parents' footsteps and did a teacher training course at college in Dublin, before returning to his home town to teach. His first book, Benny and Omar, was published in 1999 and was a best-seller in Ireland. He has written other books for different age groups. Eoin says his influences are very diverse, and include: Huckleberry Finn, Sherlock Holmes and The Simpsons.

Artemis Fowl was Eoin's sixth book and there are plans to turn it into a film. He says: "Kids nowadays are much more technologically aware than adults and their huge interest in magic has to do with what they see on computers, videos and movies. It makes them better able to see how magic works."

Eoin is married and has a son. He loves reading, anything, including jar labels, and he collects comics. Like his other books, he wrote Artemis Fowl , while he was still working full-time as a teacher, but now he's taken a break to focus on the Artemis Fowl stories.

His books include:

• Benny and Omar
• Benny and Babe
• Funny Feet
• Artemis Fowl
• Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
• Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
• Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
• The Wish List
• The Supernaturalist
• The Legend of Spud Murphy