Tales From The Crypt: Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

When international best-selling author Neil Gaiman was inspired to write his acclaimed children's novel The Graveyard Book he had a very fixed idea of what he wanted it to be. It took 20 years for it to be exactly the book he felt it deserved to be and it went on to become cited by some as the best book Neil Gaiman has ever written.


Just before The Graveyard Book was released I was given, what I felt was, a dream job as contributor of the marvelous literary magazine Verbal, which was based in Derry in Northern Ireland. I had, until then, mostly worked as a music journalist but the biggest passion of my life had always been books so getting to write about them and speak to inspirational authors couldn't have been more exciting for me.

The Best of Neil Gaiman

The first ever book Neil Gaiman published was an autobiography of Duran Duran in 1984. Since then, the innovative author moved on to bigger and better things and spent most of the eighties writing graphic novels, most notably the renowned Sandman series. It was through a collaboration with Terry Pratchett that Gaiman started writing novels and ever since his work, although technically deemed fantasy fiction, has appealed to a far wider audience than that due to his depictions of real people plunged into abnormal, fantastical places that can be terrifying and magical in equal measure.

Photo by Steve Black

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990)

Gaiman’s first novel, that in many ways gave a perfect taster of his work to come, was his collaboration with fantasy fiction legend Terry Pratchett. The combination of both of these wild imaginations was a match made in writing heaven and, along with an impressive storyline, the humour in this book is unmatchable. Containing a balance of Gaiman’s forte for The Gods and Pratchett’s already well-known penchant for witches and other strange creatures Good Omens was named in BBC’s Big Read as one of the top 100 books of all time.

The Wind that Shakes the Barleywater

I spoke to author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne on the eve of the release of his novel Noah Barleywater Runs Away about his success so far, his inspiration for his latest novel and the joys of writing.

Photo: Clara Madden

When I met John Boyne in The Morrison Hotel in Dublin the day before his novel Noah Barleywater Runs Away was being launched in the Gutter Bookshop in Temple Bar, he was notably nervous. This was his first novel for young adults since the overwhelming success of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which was translated into over 40 languages; was at the top of the Irish Book Charts for 80 weeks; made it to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list and was adapted into a high budget movie by Miramax. He apologised for the potential nerves at the start of our interview and I understood perfectly: there’s quite a lot to live up to.

Tales from the Crypt: An Interview with Neil Gaiman

When international best-selling author Neil Gaiman was inspired to write his acclaimed children's novel The Graveyard Book he had a very fixed idea of what he wanted it to be. It took twenty years for him to perfect this idea but it went on to become cited by some as the best book Neil Gaiman has ever written, which is no mean feat considering the portfolio of both critically acclaimed and best-selling work this English-born novelist has written over the past three decades. I spoke to the author upon the release of this highly-anticipated book.

Neil Gaiman is one of the most celebrated modern novelists of his generation. Beginning his career as a journalist, the first book he wrote was a biography of the rock band Duran Duran; mixing his two passions of music and writing. Gaiman's breakthrough came about upon the release of his now legendary series of graphic novels called The Sandman. From there, his fans have been lucky enough to follow a writer who experiments with a wide variety of genres, from children’s books, to graphic novels, movie screenplays, songs, novels and a constantly updated personal blog, Twitter and Facebook.

Book Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy

The Hunger Games Trilogy: The Hunger Games; Catching Fire; Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins

Author of the Hunger Games Trilogy Suzanne Collins has said that she got the idea for the story after one night tiredly flicking through channels on her TV. On one channel was a Survivor type reality TV show, while another had scenes of war footage. The two shows melded into one and an idea was born.

The Hunger Games novels, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, are set in a dystopian not-so-distant future. In some ways reminiscent of the terror in George Orwell's 1984, mixed with the cult Japanese movie Battle Royale and Golding's Lord of the Flies; there are 12 districts of the country known as Panem (based on North America), who live in poverty and are ruled by the wealthy Capitol.