Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Interview: Christopher Paolini
An Observer feature interview with author-of-the-moment, Christopher Paolini. Although Kit Spring writes of the "slightly built, bespectacled Paolini, who looks younger than his years," her feature is accompanied by a lowlight, black-and-white portrait shot by the esteemed photographer Jane Bown, which makes him look a 35-year-old father-of-three, whilst at the same time capturing the wired twinkle in his eye.
"Unsurprisingly for a prodigy (he got his high-school certificate three years early), he has a wired energy and a breadth of knowledge that leave you slightly breathless. He litters his conversation with references to films he has seen (but you haven't), books he has read (but you haven't), throws in the odd bit of Old Norse, pauses to wonder why he loves The Aeneid, but can't stand The Iliad, mentions the fact that he's colour-blind and sees mostly in shades of blue and then enthuses about chainmail, which he makes, by the way." KIT SPRING
At a Random House dinner in the Festival Hall restaurant earlier in the week, Paolini was systematically interrogated by a sequence of senior UK reviewers, either sitting at his side, or perched behind his chair. From the opposite side of the table it appeared that the young man held his own very well and was only once ill-at-ease: - when the waiter took his order for food, and due to a misunderstanding it appeared as if he were ordering a main dish as his starter.
