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The Inkworld trilogy tells the story of a girl named Meggie and her father, Mo, who share the unusual talent of being able to read themselves into stories. It’s as magical as it sounds, but the outcomes aren’t always the stuff of fairy tales. When Mo reads from a book called Inkheart, some characters wind up in Meggie and Mo’s world and some, specifically Meggie’s mother, wind up in the Ink World.

Funke called the first book, which wasn’t originally intended to be part of a series, “a love letter to all those readers as enchanted by books as I am.” When Inkheart became a huge success and Funke realized she had more that she wanted the characters to do and say, she wrote Inkspell which had a cliffhanger ending.

Readers delighted by Funke’s fantasy world, with its horrible villains and fire-dancing heroes, have been eagerly awaiting the final instalment. So why is Funke warning young readers off? Well, the title gives a big hint. Death is a major theme in this book, and its plot and themes are more complicated than those of the earlier books.

“I have had 8- or 9-year-olds come up to me at book signings and tell me how much they love the book,” Funke says. “So I don’t want to say that no children that age can read it and understand it.” But she says she prefers to think of the book as a way for older children to prepare for life’s inevitable sorrows. What happens in Inkdeath, she says, “is a shadow of what will come in life. They can practice on the pages.”

Funke, 49, knows about sadness. Her husband, the father of her two children, died just before she finished the book.

Born on 10th December 1958 in Dorsten, Germany, Cornelia Caroline Funke aspired to being an astronaut when a child but took the route of studying education theory at Hamburg University. After graduating Funke (pronounced - FOON-ka) took the position of Social Worker and dedicated her three years in this role to deprived children. She then took a job as an illustrator and board game designer after completing a postgraduate course at Hamburg University of Design but soon realised that she wanted to write and illustrate her own stories; her time working with children had certainly given her an insight into the type of stories that children wanted to read and enjoy.

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