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About the AuthorMy name is Liam Farrell and I am a fulltime Children’s Author & Storyteller living and working in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. I also write freelance newspaper and magazine articles mainly on history and general interest subjects. I write under my own name and I have a good deal of practical experience in commercial writing. I have been writing full-time since January 1995 and prior to that for most of my life part-time. As well as writing I also give “Talks on Getting Started in Writing Commercially” for 5th & 6th class Primary School pupils and for Secondary School students.
At the moment I have four children’s books, published here in Ireland by The Children’s Press. The Children’s Press was taken over by Mercier Press in mid 2009. My latest book was published in October 2006 and is entitled Goldilocks the Babysitter from Hell. As a result of this book I got to meet one of my all time heroes, Dustin the most famous turkey in Ireland (my other heroes are Homer Simpson, Mr. Bean and Jack Duckworth of Coronation Street) on Dustin’s Daily News on RTÉ 2 television on November 15th 2006 (Photo below to the right). It was the best bit of fun I have had in years, to meet Dustin in person and to get my photo taken with him and to talk to him as an equal and also to see how a TV studio actually works. By the way Dustin is really nice when you get to know him. Unlike some of the other big shots in RTÉ (the Irish National TV Station), he will wave to you and smile when he sees you in the RTÉ Café and shout out, “Go on ya good thing,” as only he can do.
My first two books The True Story of The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf (2001) and The Trial of The Big Bad Wolf (2002) were positively reviewed on the Pat Kenny (of Late Late Show fame) RTÉ radio programme on 23/10/2001 and 16/10/2002 respectively. The latter book has on many occasions been turned into a school play due to the fact that it all takes place in a courtroom and there are so many fairytale characters with walk on parts, so all the kids can get a part to play. Perhaps teachers might like to consider this option for their little people’s next school play.
Perhaps, if any of the schools, or children have any posters, or reviews of my books, or any other memorabilia from these plays, or such like from my visits , they might like to send them to me for inclusion on my website, you can use my contact form, or write to me through your class teacher, see my Contact page for details.
My books are all stories I used to tell my own children Jeremy and Lydia when they were small and now I have put them into book format for my grandsons and granddaughter, My Magic Little Men and My Magic Little Woman Garrett, Braiden and Liam (who are twins), Seamus, Isabelle,Tristan and Lochlan.
I never read to my children when they were small. I always told them stories instead. When they were old enough to read I got them to read to me in exchange for a story. It was a non-pressurised way of getting them to practice their reading skills. At first I told them all the known fairy tales. Then when I ran out of those I started making up my own versions.
You see, I look at the fairy tales from a different point of view. As far as I am concerned there would be no fairy tales without the bad guy. Think about it, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs would never have been heard of if it was not for The Big Bad Wolf. The Three Bears would never have been heard of if it was not for Goldilocks, that Britney Spears look-a-like, who broke into their house, wrecked the place, eat everything they had, then done a runner. Or the Old Witch living quietly in the forest in her ginger bread house would never have been heard of if it was not for that wretched brother and sister duo Hansel and Gretel who came along and ate the side wall out of the poor old woman’s house. The winter months were coming on at the time and you all know how hard it is to get a builder, or a plumber, or even a baker to do any repairs in the month of November. So I tell the bad guy’s side of the story.
Having said this, my stories have to be not only both entertaining and safe, but they also have to be interactive as well. I find in my experience (explained later) stories go down better with children if you don’t scare them too much and they can join in. So by choosing the regular fairy tales and revising and dramatising them with characters from other stories having walk-on parts, my children were both comfortable and familiar with my stories. So no nightmares and no “daddy, daddy there’s a monster under my bed!”
Since my childhood I have always been writing. I got my first cheque for writing in December 1983. I never cashed it. Instead I kept it as a souvenir. Now I show it to the children during my Talk on Writing class. But before I started writing fulltime I had a very boring job. I worked for a bank in their computer department for nearly 20 years. There you did everything once a day, once a week, once a month, once every three months, once every six months or once every year. Then it all started all over again, time after time.
Prior to my storytelling career, the best job I ever had was way back in the early 1970s as a Bus Conductor for CIE (also known as the Crush in Everybody bus company), with Dublin City Services. I remember those days with great affection. My colleagues on the buses were colourful people in a black and white world.
Eventually after twenty years of toeing the party line in the bank I just couldn’t do it anymore. The money was fantastic, but it was so soul destroying. It felt as if there were chains around my mind. So one day I just walked away and that was April 1st 1993 and the rest is history. Since then I have reinvented myself not as somebody different, but as me, the real me.
