Darren Shan

Darren Shan is an Irish author widely known for his young adult horror books. He was born as Darren O'Shaughnessy on 2 July, 1972, in London. However, he moved to Limerick, Ireland with his parents and younger brother when he was just six years old. As a kid, he used to read a lot of books, which inspired him to write. During his teenage days, he wrote a lot of short stories and comic scripts. At age 15, he participated in a TV script-writing competition and won the runner-up prize. Darren went back to London to study Sociology and English in Roehampton College. During his college days, he wrote one book every year. Later, he took up writing full-time and averaged writing 5 to 6 books per year.

Darren Shan’s initial books were adult-oriented. His book, ‘Ayuamarca’, published by Orion in February 1999, was the first step towards success. Later, he released a sequel to ‘Ayuamarca’ called ‘Hell’s Horizon’ however, it didn’t do well. Darren Shan released ‘The Saga Of Darren Shan’, the first in the series of children’s books, which got him immense popularity. The series revolved around vampires and he wrote a total of 12 books. Universal Studios even bought the movie rights of the first three books of ‘The Saga’.

Darren Shan released ‘The Demonata’ in 2005 – a series of books focussing on demons. The series will finally comprise 10 books in total. Daren Shan wrote ‘Blood Beast’, the latest book in ‘The Demonata’ series, which was released in June, 2007.