Irish author and screenwriter

Derek Landy (born 23 October 1974) is an Irish author and screenwriter, best known for the Skulduggery Pleasant book series.

Contents

• 1 Career
• 2 Personal life
• 3 Reception
  • 3.1 Awards
• 4 Bibliography
  • 4.1 Skulduggery Pleasant series
    • 4.1.1 First series
    • 4.1.2 Second series
  • 4.2 The Demon Road Trilogy
  • 4.3 Miscellaneous
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Career

Landy has written two screenplays that have been made into films, the IFTA award-winning Dead Bodies and the IFTA-nominated Boy Eats Girl starring Samantha Mumba. Landy himself was nominated for an IFTA for Best Script.

Frustrated with the collaborative process of filmmaking, Landy moved on to writing the Skulduggery Pleasant series, starting with the novel of the same name. The novel was published by Harper Collins, who paid £1.8 million for the publishing rights. There are 15 books in the series with 3 spin offs.In 2007, he signed a deal with Warner Bros. worth an estimated US$1 million for the rights to adapt his Skulduggery Pleasant series, which he intended to adapt himself. However, his script was constantly rewritten and Landy, unhappy with the results, bought back the rights. He sold the rights to another company which couldn't make it, then worked with another company that "petered out". As of 2020, he was working on an adaptation with an undisclosed film making company.

Landy is a fan of Joss Whedon's works, notably Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. He is also a fan of Gilmore Girls and Doctor Who.

Landy wrote a short story based on the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who as part of a short story collection celebrating the show's 50th anniversary. The story was published by Puffin in 2013, *led "The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage".

Personal life

Landy attended Drogheda Grammar School during his childhood years, and later studied animation at Ballyfermot College. He also has a black belt in kenpo karate. Prior to his contract with HarperCollins, he worked on his parents' vegetable farm. He has been dating Laura Jordan, who is also a writer, from Sittingbourne for a number of years and they now live together in Ireland.

Reception

In a review of his first book, Skulduggery Pleasant, Sarah Webb of the Irish Independent wrote that it "is taut, full of zippy dialogue and fantastically visuals".

Awards

In 2008, Landy won the Red House Children's Book Award. Playing with Fire, Mortal Coil and Last Stand of Dead Men each won the senior Irish Children's Book Award, in 2009, 2010 and 2013. In addition in 2010 Skulduggery Pleasant (Sceptre of the Ancients) was voted as Irish book of the decade.

Bibliography

Skulduggery Pleasant series

First series

• Skulduggery Pleasant (April 2007); US *le Sceptre of the Ancients for distinction from the series name
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire (April 2008)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones (April 2009)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days (April 2010)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil (September 2010)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer (September 2011)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked (August 2012)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men (August 2013)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light (August 2014)

Second series

• Skulduggery Pleasant: Resurrection (June 2017)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Midnight (June 2018)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Bedlam (May 2019)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Seasons of War (April 2020)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Dead or Alive (April 2021)
• Skulduggery Pleasant: Until the End (April 2022)

The Demon Road Trilogy

• The Demon Road Trilogy: Demon Road (August 2015) (also *led The Demon Road Trilogy: Hell and Highway)
• The Demon Road Trilogy: Desolation (March 2016)
• The Demon Road Trilogy: American Monsters (August 2016) (also *led The Demon Road Trilogy: Infernal Finale)

Miscellaneous

• Doctor Who: "The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage" (2013), short story
• The Black Order (2019), comic series
• Marvel Comics #1000: "Deadpool Locked" (2019),
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2020), tie-in comic series

References

External links

• Children's literature portal
• Speculative fiction portal
• Ireland portal

• Skulduggery Pleasant (official)
• Derek Landy at IMDb:
• Derek Landy at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database