The Brothers of Madness

Illustrator Terry Denton and author Andy Griffiths never imagined that their silly book would become an international success. 

– He’s got a tap of madness, and it’s all pouring out of it.

This is how Andy Griffiths’s partner
Terry Denton described it in an interview with Australia’s ABC News this fall. The creators of the best-selling book series “The Boys in the Treehouse” have been working together
for over 20 years and agree that they are a dream team. But the Australians never imagined that the books would be published in over
30 countries and that they would win over 70 awards for them.

“It exceeded our wildest dreams,” Terry Denton said in the same interview.

In July, the duo released yet another book about the 104-story wooden house that children (and adults) all over the world have come to love. The creators feel that today’s children are far more sheltered than they were when they grew up with a greater degree of freedom and anarchy. That’s why they’ve created a universe where everything ends in a worst-case scenario, where children can dip their toes into uncharted waters. Andy and Terry believe that books are the last refuge for children, where they can experience adventure, fantasy, and imagine scary and wild things. You get all of this in the commissioned work “The Boys in the Christmas Tree House,” which children will first experience as a play atperforming arts centre Kilden performing arts centre. And it wouldn’t surprise us if many people want to see the story brought to life in book form after seeing the performance.

Text by Ingrid Anthonsen

Photo: Press photo