EOIN COLFER

Here be a dragon: the Irish writer on his first “adult” novel

- Jonathan Wright 

ONCE THE DRAGON HAD INTERVENED, Eoin Colfer realised his new novel couldn’t be a children’s book, and that he’d have to rework it. “It started swearing and drinking,” he says. “I’m blaming the dragon, like I had no part in it.”

Whoever was responsible, the result is Highfire, a fantasy noir set in the Louisiana bayou. The fire-breather in question is Lord Highfire of Highfire Eyrie – aka Vern, a creature of venerable age with a penchant for vodka and, weirdly, Flashdance.

But why’s he living in the bayou? Because Vern is quite possibly the last dragon left alive and he’s hiding from humanity, a species he sees as having a dangerous penchant for gathering in torch-carrying mobs. As he came to write the book, says Colfer, he realised he needed a setting where a dragon could disappear. Hunting through urban myths and legends, he came across the story of the Honey Island Swamp monster.

“The legend has it – and I love these legends, because there’s no way this is possible – that a circus train came off the bridge and went into the swamp,” he says. “That did happen, but that’s where rumour takes hold. The rumour is the gorilla escaped, had sweet, sweet love with an alligator, and then the Honey Island Swamp monster was born. I thought, ‘That’s great,’ and also, ‘How annoyed would you be if you were the last dragon and everyone thought you were the progeny of a monkey and an alligator?’”

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