1st book in the Landy and Friends series

Product Information

What do you love about writing stories for children? It is the initial thinking of the story in imagery that I find wonderful – you can take it wherever you want to go. When I write, I am not just writing for children, but for the grown-ups who read to children. I want people to identify with my characters and for my books to trigger lots of conversation between children and adults, especially at bedtime. In the debut novel of the series, we meet Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton. He may lose his skull again and again, and he is more than he appears to be. In fact, the current skull he is got is a prize from a poker match that he won. Pleasant might be long dead but is a magician who escaped the grave so that he could remain and save the world from evil.

Can you tell us something about Landy or yourself that even most loyal fans may not know? Every time I start a new book I always have a vision of it - I think in images rather than words – but am always afraid that I might not be good enough to translate the vision into good illustrations.Please tell me about the commissions that you do for people who want a portrait of themselves with their Land Rover. People send me images of themselves, or their children, with their own Land Rover and I illustrate them in the Landybook animated-style. Sometimes I can also create a painting of their child with Landy or Fender, so they feel a part of the books. I have not been taking on commissions in the last year, as I have been so busy with the Fender animation, the new book and my educational work, but come the autumn I will start again. In Dark Days, Skulduggery Pleasant is wandering on the other side of the portal. He is accompanied by some evil gods. Can the already dead mage survive this ordeal?

Skullduggery Pleasant is a fantasy novel series written by bestselling Irish author Derek Landy. The books are themed on the adventures of a skeleton detective, named Skulduggery Pleasant and a teenage girl named Valkyrie Cain/Stephanie Edgley together with other friends. Fender Goes to Africa Dan and Fender go on their big adventure, travelling from Cairo to Cape Town. They have lots of adventures along the way … and even meet Jojo who gives Dan a present! (Jojo is the main character in Veronica’s book ‘ Jojo’s Wire Car‘) The seventh special edition Landybook Three weeks before Defender production stopped at the end of January, Land Rover challenged Veronica to write a story about Landy visiting the factory and this book is the outcome…then they opened the factory for her on a Sunday so she could take all the reference images. All the people in the book are the real people who were working on Defender 2 week before production stopped. Landy at the Factory is an exciting story of Landy’s birthday treat – an invitation to visit the real Defender Factory in Solihull. What do you think most readers will take away from reading Fender Goes to Africa? I hope a feel of Africa.The main plot of the entire series details the struggles of Valkyrie in trying to stop the whole world in from evil forces that threaten it, trying to get justice for the death of her uncle and the efforts to retain the darkness within. Did your early memories of South Africa have any influence on your books? Yes, Africa is in my blood. My Zulu nanny with her warm, relaxed nature was a wonderfully creative person who helped inspire my own creativity. My mother Ruth Keech was a poet, so writing was something thatwas always going on around me. When I was 14 I read The Lost World of the Kalahari by Laurence van der Post, whichmade me want to go exploring Africa in a Land Rover, but sadly, I have never had the time to do it – I guess I did it vicariously by writing about Dan and Fender travellingin Africa! Did you ever intend to create a series? I always saw it as a series of books as the stories are endless really, but I am actually going to stop writing for a bit now and concentrate on the educational side of my work. The characters presented in this novel are fantastic. First of all, Skulduggery is the very smart guy who will do everything under his magical capabilities to save those close to him. Also, Stephanie is a strong 12-year-old who manages to withstand all the challenges that the world has to offer despite her world being turned upside down. Lastly is Tanith Low, a brilliant fighter. The plot is tight despite the novel mostly focused on action. Which five words best describe your new book? Colourful, warm-hearted, informative, diverse and fun.

In 2011 the author announced in a video blog that even though the first of Skulduggery Pleasant series, a second series of the Skulduggery series would commence with the publication of Resurrection in June 2017. Her book 'Jojo's Wire Car' was published in June 2014, by Random House Struik Publishers in South Africa. After I released the YouTube video of Landy last year on my Landy and Friends channel – and discovered how much fun it was, I created the Fender film, which came out in June. Fender – we meet Landy’s friend who lives near the beach. The story is based around a beach clean-up and how Fender and Dan rescue a seal pup. Derek Landy is an Irish writer and screenwriter. In addition to the bestselling children's/YA series of Skulduggery Pleasant books, a supernatural mystery series starring Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton detective, and Valkyrie Cain, a young female magician, he has written two screenplays that have been made into films: the IFTA award winning "Dead Bodies" and the IFTA nominated "Boy Eats Girl". Landy himself was nominated for an IFTA for Best Script.What has been the best reaction from a reader, so far? The people who run the Ethiopian Wolf absolutely love whatI have done and feel it will help promote the wonderful work they do. So Skulduggery and Stephanie begin a quest to find the Sceptre, battle the vampire, the undead and the minions of the evil guys as well as to prove the existence of the Faceless Ones and the Ancients Ones. The author Landy was first contracted to write a trilogy, with a promise that any further books would highly depend on how the books sold in the market. The success of these novels led to the extension of the deal to a total of six novels in 2011.