向达伦

Darren O'Shaughnessy

生卒: 1972 –
国籍: 爱尔兰、英国
外文名: Darren O'Shaughnessy

照片：jenniely LY，CC BY 2.0，来自维基共享资源「Darren Shan (2016).jpg」（经缩小）。

生平与创作

向达伦（Darren Shan，1972年7月2日—）是爱尔兰作家达伦·欧沙纳西（Darren O'Shaughnessy）的笔名，也是向达伦大冒险系列的主角名称（在美国叫做怪奇马戏团系列）。

简介

达伦·欧沙纳希（Darren O'Shaughnessy）于1972年7月2日出生于英国伦敦的工人阶层家庭，母亲是一名小学老师。他住在伦敦东南部，靠近大象城堡的地方。他在三岁的时候开始上学，六岁的时候随着父母和弟弟移居爱尔兰的Limerick，从此定居爱尔兰。他曾在爱尔兰就读大学，其后转往伦敦念社会学系及英文系。

他从五、六岁起就一直想当作家，十四岁时拥有了第一部打字机，从此开始了写作生涯，曾获爱尔兰RTE编剧比赛第二名。十七岁时完成第一部小说《无言的追逐》，但一直未出版，后曾以本名出版过《爱犹玛卡》、《地狱之界》二本小说。

二十八岁时开始推出《向达伦大冒险》系列，不但荣获“IRA-CBC”最佳童书、“亲子指南儿童多媒体”杰出图书奖，更荣登爱尔兰、英国、美国、日本、台湾等地的畅销排行榜，全球销量已突破九百万册。环球影业已经购买了向达伦大冒险系列前三集的电影版权，打算拍成一集电影。布莱恩·海格兰（Brian Helgeland）正在撰写剧本，制片是罗兰·舒勒·唐纳（Lauren Shuler Donner）。片名依照系列名称取做怪奇马戏团（Cirque du Freak），并将于2008年2月开拍。

向达伦目前正全心发展最新的故事《魔域大冒险》系列，并尝试不同的写作策略。新系列不但节奏更快、情节更惊险，而且将出现三个不同的主角，但命运将把各个主角的未来牵系在一起，最终并导向一个出乎预料的结局，最新一本的小说是《Hell's Heroes》。

以上文字摘自维基百科「向達倫」（去掉了参考文献等尾部小节），按 CC BY-SA 4.0 使用，作者为维基百科的各位编者。

中文维基百科的条目比较短，下面附上英文维基百科的内容（英文原文）：

Darren O'Shaughnessy (born 2 July 1972) is an Irish writer and novelist. He is best known for his young adult fiction series The Saga of Darren Shan, The Demonata, and Zom-B, published under the pseudonym Darren Shan. The former was adapted into a manga series from 2006 to 2009 as well as a live-action film in 2009, with a prequel series, The Saga of Larten Crepsley, being released from 2010 to 2012.

O'Shaughnessy has published other children's books as Darren Shan, including Koyasan, and The Thin Executioner. From 2020 to 2022, he self-published his latest young adult series Archibald Lox.

In the past, O'Shaughnessy has also published novels for adults under the Darren Shan pseudonym, but since 2014 he has released his work for older readers under the name of Darren Dash.

Early life and education

O'Shaughnessy was born in St Thomas’ Hospital in London, opposite the Houses of Parliament. At the age of three, he started school at English Martyrs' near the Elephant and Castle where he lived. When he was six, he moved with his parents and younger brother, to Limerick in Ireland, where he has lived ever since.

He received his primary education in Askeaton, and attended secondary school at Copsewood College, Pallaskenry, graduating in 1989. He returned to London in 1990 to pursue a degree in Sociology and English from Roehampton Institute of Higher Education.

Career

O'Shaughnessy bought his first typewriter when he was fourteen and wrote many short stories, comic scripts, and books that he never finished, many of which are unpublished. O'Shaughnessy claims that most of these stories will never be published. His first success came to him at age fifteen, when he was a runner-up in a TV script-writing competition for RTÉ in Ireland, with a dark comedy story entitled A Day in the Morgue.

After university, O'Shaughnessy worked in a TV cable company in Limerick for two years, before becoming a full-time writer at the age of 23. His breakthrough came with Ayuamarca, published in February 1999 by Orion Publishing Group under his full name. The sequel, Hell's Horizon, was published in February 2000. Ayuamarca was re-released in March 2008 under the title Procession of the Dead and the pen-name D.B. Shan. Hell's Horizon followed in March 2009, and the third in the trilogy, City of the Snakes in March 2010 (but this time under the name of Darren Shan). In January 2000, Shan released Cirque du Freak, the first book of The Saga of Darren Shan series in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The series was a huge global success and by 2021 his books were on sale in 40 countries, in 32 languages, and had sold thirty million copies worldwide.

O'Shaughnessy signed up with the Christopher Little Literary Agency in 1996 and they continued to represent him until Christopher Little's death in 2021. He is now represented by the Curtis Brown Agency.

Personal life

O'Shaughnessy continues to live in Pallaskenry in Limerick, Ireland with his wife Helen Basini, a freelance university lecturer and global aid specialist. On 23 September 2014, the couple celebrated the birth of their first child, Dante, named after the famous Italian author Dante Alighieri. Shan and his wife Helen welcomed their second child, a daughter named Gaia, on 26 March 2019.

In 2025, Shan paid a tax bill of €2.14 million to the Revenue Commissioners after a financial audit revealed that he owed €1.4 million in unpaid taxes.