Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer is an Irish author born in Wexford in 1965. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a primary-school teacher. His early books drew on places he knew: *Benny and Omar* (1998) follows an Irish boy whose family moves to Tunisia, where Colfer had taught. Its sequel, *Benny and Babe* (1999), brings Benny back to Ireland.

Colfer became internationally known for *Artemis Fowl*, published in 2001. Its title character is a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind who discovers a technologically advanced fairy civilization and kidnaps one of its officers, Holly Short, to demand a ransom. Holly belongs to the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance unit, known as LEPrecon. Artemis’s imposing bodyguard, Butler, helps him carry out the plan. The novel mixes folklore with science-fiction technology and a contest of wits between Artemis and the fairies. Colfer continued the story across eight main novels, ending with *Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian* in 2012.

The series also introduced readers to characters including Mulch Diggums, a dwarf whose unusual abilities make him a valuable thief. After the main sequence ended, Colfer returned to its world in *The Fowl Twins* (2019), shifting attention to Artemis’s younger brothers, Myles and Beckett. Disney released a film adaptation of *Artemis Fowl* in 2020, directed by Kenneth Branagh, with Ferdia Shaw playing Artemis and Lara McDonnell playing Holly.

Colfer’s books beyond the Fowl series range across genres. *The Wish List* (2000) concerns a dead teenager trying to settle the balance between her good and bad deeds. *The Supernaturalist* (2004) follows young people who can see creatures feeding on human life force. In *Half Moon Investigations* (2006), a schoolboy trained as a detective takes on a case, while *Airman* (2008) tells the story of a young inventor and aviator in a fictional island kingdom.

In 2009, Colfer wrote *And Another Thing...*, a continuation of Douglas Adams’s *Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy* series. His adult fiction includes *Plugged* (2011), a crime novel featuring Irish former soldier Daniel McEvoy, and *Highfire* (2020), whose dragon, Vern, lives in the Louisiana bayou.

Colfer has also worked in comics. The graphic novel *Illegal* (2017), created with writer Andrew Donkin and artist Giovanni Rigano, follows a boy named Ebo on a dangerous journey from Africa toward Europe. Together, these works show the breadth of his published career, from children’s mysteries and fantasy to crime fiction and graphic storytelling.