Katherine MacAlister talks to the best-selling author of the How To Train Your Dragon series

Cressida Cowell used her 11 year-old son as a guinea-pig for her twelfth and final book in the How To Train Your Dragon series.

They were making great progress until she got called away on work. When she returned he had read the entire novel in one go.

“I was gutted because I was really enjoying reading How To Fight a Dragon’s Fury with him, but I suppose it’s good that he couldn’t wait to get to the end,” she laughs.

Hardly surprising, considering the famous author has sold seven million books worldwide and inspired a massively successful movie trilogy featuring mini Viking Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.

Cressida Cowell’s Farewell Tour, coming to Oxford’s Playhouse on Friday, is therefore rather poignant.

“Yes, it’s very emotional for me, but I’m softening the blow because I love talking to children. It’s such a pleasure and I really enjoy going to schools and theatres around the country because this is my passion and I want to enthuse a future generation of readers.

“There is so much competition now for their attention with technology, computers and TV that it’s a real battle and this is my crusade and it’s one that we are winning.

“Children’s book sales are up and it’s down to all those teachers and parents who make the effort and find the time to read with their children, which is always tricky, because when you get back from work you are exhausted.”

And is that how Cressida really sees it, as a battle? “Absolutely. It is very much a quest, but a real life one.”

“I just want to reach as many children as possible and get them excited about books. It’s about the survival of the book. My job is to create the readers of tomorrow.”

Whether her own imagination was fired up by her unique holidays on a Scottish island, or here at Oxford where she studied English, who knows, but her main aim is to engage us.

“Our family would get dropped off by boat and roam wild for two weeks before being picked up again, a bit like one of those reality TV documentaries. It was an absolute paradise and you could just leave us all day to get on with it and explore. “But then everything is different now. I grew up in London (where she still lives) and used to get a bus to school. I was six and my sister was five and we would travel on public transport every day right across London with all the other kids. It wasn’t unusual.”

So are her children as independent. “No, I’m failing miserably,” she laughs. But as L. P. Hartley said: ‘The past is another country. They do things differently there,’ Things have changed.”

“But we still go to the island. My father is still alive. And that was great when the children were primary school age, but now they are teenagers it’s harder. But the time will come when they rediscover it. Everything goes in cycles,” she says.

Little else seems to have changed in the Cowell household, despite Cressida’s immense success. Book rights aside, the How to Train Your Dragon film was released in 2010 earning nearly $500 million worldwide. The sequel, was another box office success. A second sequel, How to Train Your Dragon 3 is being released in 2018).

She still lives in the same house in Chiswick and writes in the shed at the end of the garden. Just like Roald Dahl then?

“I have a bed in mine where I write. It’s more comfy,” she says. “I used to do all my homework in bed as well when I was at school, so this is nice with lots of cushions and things. It’s small and cosy which helps turn me in on myself.

“But no things haven’t changed. The Hollywood thing is fun but while it may appear glamorous on the outside, inside we are all just friends with the same vision. It’s been quite a grounding experience for me.

“And my books have always been very visual because they help break up the text for reluctant readers and give them a picture in their heads. I always wrote them to be read aloud so illustration is key.”

Looking forward to returning to Oxford to revisit Keble, and her husband’s college Worcester, Cressida says: “I love coming back and have very fond memories of Oxford. I also love coming to The Story Museum. It’s amazing there.”

As to the future, Cressida admits the pressure on every new book is massive. “You want them to end on an absolute high. The climax has to be so exciting but different to the last one, like a piece of music really. So I always get to the end with a great deal of triumph and satisfaction,” she says.

Cressida Cowell is at the Oxford Playhouse, tomorrow, 5pm.