Writing non-fiction is a 'different kind of pleasure'. 'He would go from village to village, telling stories.' 'My grandfather was a seanachai, a professional storyteller,' he said. He says his first love will always be writing fiction, a calling he puts down to his Irish roots. I became completely obsessed about getting everything right.' 'For one thing I couldn't embroider as much. 'It's a completely different style of writing,' said Iggulden. I see no reason why someone like that couldn't write non-fiction.' 'Some people are clearly only inspired by the imagination,' she said, ' but quite a lot of people root their fiction in someone they've known, or someone in history. His editor at HarperCollins, Susan Watt, finds the same spirit at the heart of both books, a 'feeling of comradeship and adventure'. We walked into the health and safety argument, and into the sitting in front of the Playstation argument.' 'I didn't set out to make a statement,' explained Iggulden, 'but it seemed to strike a chord. Some argued that it was encouraging young boys to injure themselves, while others praised its mission to get boys playing outdoors. This compendium of information, full of tales of derring do and instructions for building catapults, go-karts, bows and arrows, sparked a storm of controversy on its publication last June. 'The Dangerous Book for Boys is the one that surprised me,' continued Iggulden, 'because I thought there was a chance that no one would be interested.' It was the success of The Dangerous Book for Boys, which has now sold over half a million copies, that has been so unexpected. 'The story of Genghis Khan is the greatest rags to riches story of all time,' said Iggulden. Iggulden has a track record of performing well early in the year - this is the fourth year in a row that he's had a work of hardback fiction at number one in January. 'For a start, people don't tend to publish two new books in a calendar year, and secondly fiction and non-fiction are such different beasts.' 'As far as we're aware it's an all-time first,' said the charts and media editor at the Bookseller, Giles Elliott. 'It couldn't have happened to a nicer or a harder-working writer,' said his agent, Victoria Hobbs. 'I'm over the moon,' he said, 'absolutely thrilled.'

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