'The Edge': Two British dads create fantasy worlds for young minds

For buddies Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, creating a best-selling fantasy series is no walk in the woods. It's more like a quick jaunt through the neighborhood.

The longtime friends, who met through their sons' preschool 14 years ago, now live just four doors apart in a tony area of Brighton, England.

All the better to pick each other's brains as they conjure the fantastical characters and other-worldly adventures at the heart of "The Edge Chronicles," their popular series for middle-school fantasy buffs.

It sure beats the old days, when they had to slog from their homes at opposite ends of a steep hill.

"We used to meet at a very conveniently placed bar in the middle and tell our wives we were going to work," said Stewart.

The authors are on tour to promote the U.S. release of "Freeglader" (Random House, 416 pages, $12.95), the seventh in a planned 10-volume series.

Complex, dangerous and filled with creatures that Lewis Carroll would be proud to claim, the stories take place in a world of mires, twilight woods and a floating city called Sanctaphrax at the edge of a vast nothingness. There's a good overview of the world and its main characters at www.edgechronicles.com

English kids have been gobbling it up since 1998, when "Beyond the Deepwoods" launched the adventure.

The initial protagonist was Twig, a misplaced boy raised by woodtrolls until he sets out to seek his true identity.

Twig starred in three titles before the spotlight shifted to other boys, Quint and Rook, each of whom will anchor a trilogy within the larger series.

Expect the 10th book to be a massive summing up: 800-plus pages that unmask the connections among multiple generations of characters.

"It'll answer absolutely everything," said Stewart, the clever writer to Riddell's edgy artist.

Since acquiring the series, Random House has cranked up the assembly line -- releasing three titles per year -- to bring U.S. fans almost up to speed with the British, who already have their hands on Book 8, "The Winter Knights."

"The Edge Chronicles" has been translated into 25 languages and has spent more than 40 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list.

"They're exciting, they're great books for boys, they're complicated," said Rene Kirkpatrick, book buyer at All for Kids. She is currently reading book four, "The Curse of the Gloamglozer."

Having met Stewart and Riddell on their previous Seattle visit, Kirkpatrick said, "They are both incredibly funny. They are just great storytellers. They made our faces hurt, we laughed so much."

The books owe much of their success to the creative synergy between Stewart's inventive wordplay and Riddell's minutely detailed artwork -- each India-ink stroke applied by French-made Kolensky-sable brushes.

"I love drawing with a brush," said Riddell, a stickler for the right tools, "because a brush gives you such freedom of expression."

Noreen Marchisi at Random House said, "He's one of those people, if he opens up his jacket, he has 10 pens in his pocket."

Riddell, 43, is the ebullient one -- a soft teddy bear with the piercing wit of a political cartoonist, which happens to be his day job. Riddell is on staff at the Observer, London's oldest Sunday newspaper, and his work also appears in the New Statesman magazine. He has three kids, ages 9 to 16.

Stewart, 50, a veteran author, is the rugged-looking guy with the shiny dome. "Baldy" is the affectionate nickname bestowed on him by Riddell's young son, Jack.

"Small, impertinent boy," is Stewart's affectionate rejoinder.

Before launching "The Edge Chronicles, " the duo did other, more conventional books together, including a "Rabbit and Hedgehog" picture-book series. Riddell was the first to suggest a change of direction.

One day he handed Stewart a spidery map he had drawn and asked, "Can we do something a bit darker?"

Rising to the challenge, Stewart used Riddell's map as the basis for tales set in a fast-paced fantasy world. Stewart admits he has no ground to claim writer's block since Riddell continues to ply him with weirdly inventive sketches.

"We actually plot the books together," Stewart said.

Word and image are equally vital. As one young fan wrote them recently, "I read your book twice this weekend, once with the words and once with the pictures."

It's a rare gift for a children's book author and illustrator to even meet, much less collaborate. One American editor told them she was appalled, that she keeps the word and picture people apart at all costs. Riddell said the editor finds that authors "tend to bully the illustrators."

"That's so not true!" Stewart protested in mock dismay. "It's the other way around!"

Younger readers who can't quite handle the intricacies of "The Edge Chronicles" can look forward to the May launch of a new fantasy series, "The Far-Flung Adventures," (already published in Britain) for ages 8 to 10. "Fergus Crane" is the lead title.

Stewart and Riddell are already planning two other series -- one starring a Victorian pickpocket and the other, well, that's "top secret," Riddell said. "We can't talk about it yet."

Meanwhile, they can daydream about the possibilities as talks continue with Hollywood studios about a proposed film version of "The Edge Chronicles."

Riddell, chuckling, said, "I've got a part that's just right for Angelina Jolie, which will take extensive meetings to work out."

To see more of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, for online features, or to subscribe, go to http://seattlep-I.com.

© 1998-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All Rights Reserved.