Eoin Colfer was born and raised in Wexford, a seaside town in the south-east of Ireland. He began writing plays at an early age, forcing his unfortunate classmates to dress up as marauding Vikings when they would have preferred to be outdoors doing some real marauding.Browbeaten by constant encouragement from his family, Eoin continued to write as an adult. His first novel, Benny and Omar, was an instant bestseller in Ireland, and Artemis Fowl, his first book featuring the brilliant young anti-hero, was an immediate international bestseller. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and was winner of both the WH Smith 'People's Choice' Children's Book of the Year and of the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year.