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A bit about Neil…

• Born in Portchester in 1960. Now lives in the USA.• First book – Duran Duran Biography!• “Literary Rock Star”• Nearly 2 Million Followers on Twitter (@neilhimself)

Three Authors in One

1. Children/YA Novelist

2. Novelist for adults

3. Graphic novelist

Also writes short stories and written for TV/film, including two recent Doctor Who episodes…

Books for the young

“Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences.” –The Ocean at the End of the Lane

• The one with the ‘buttons for eyes’

• Unknown merges with the known

• A twisted (but hopeful) fairy tale – GK Chesterton epigraph at start of novel

• The Jungle Book as reimagined by Neil Gaiman• Union of the Natural and the Supernatural – Danse

Macabre

Adult Novels

• His ‘Great American Novel’• America’s troubled reality• A plethora of mythologies

• A dark ‘fairy tale for grown ups’• Uses classic fairy tale tropes• Victorian setting

Graphic Novels

* In my opinion

His Masterpiece*

* - In my opinion

The Endless

DestinyDeathDreamDestructionDesireDespairDelirium (formerly Delight)

Illusion and Allusion

A few examples…

• A Dream of a Thousand Cats –Plato’s Parable of the Cave

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream• The Furies

Neil in a Nutshell

“Neil Gaiman is a star. He constructs stories like some demented cook might make a wedding cake, building layer upon layer, including all kinds of sweet and sour in the mix.”

Clive Barker