Eoin Colfer was a primary school teacher in until he secured the largest ever advance for a children's novel by an unknown author in October 2000 for Artemis Fowl. Total UK sales of Artemis Fowl titles now exceed a staggering 4.5 million copies in the UK and Ireland and over 18 million worldwide. His work is published in fourty-four countries. Colfer, who is fourty-three, lives in Wexford, a seaside town in the south-east of Ireland, with his wife, Jackie, and their sons, Finn and Sean.