One English reviewer has called him the JKR (aka JK Rowling , author of the blockbusting Harry Potter series) of Greece; the University of Minnesota has set up a special research collection of his books for literary scholars to ponder. With over 120 books in print, not to mention plays, an operetta and a super popular TV cartoon series, author, lawyer and criminology professor Eugenios Trivizas is a best-selling, award-winning never-ending font of wildly inventive fairytales written in humorous verses that tumble blithely off the tongue.

Praised as "a miracle worker who brings to life a whole new world based on imagination," and "a revitalizing force in Greek children's literature," Trivizas' popularity has spread well beyond the national boundaries, with translations of his stories appearing in 20 languages. A resident of England, he was recently honoured in Greece for his children's books with the Prize of the National Academy.

A beautiful mind
In Grandmas with the Yoyos, grandmas and grandpas from all over the city sneak off to their own personal playground where they swing, skip and jump to their hearts' content before reverting back to their more dignified everyday demeanour. The castle in the Island of Fireworks houses a collection of fairy tale objects, including a brick from the wick from Aladdin's lamp, a feather from Sleeping Beauty's pillow and the egg-shell from which the ugly duckling hatched. In the Last Black Cat, an allegory about prejudice and superstition, black cats are marked for elimination by a secret sect that considers them bad luck.

The sources of his inspiration? "I confess," Trivizas explains, "that I suffer from a rare, and probably incurable, form of literary fetishism. Small, insignificant items like jelly beans, milk bottle tops, sugar cubes, paper clips or cinnamon sticks excite my imagination." He jots the ideas into a reporter's notebook he carries with him, transferring them into a computer database for later elaboration.

A born storyteller, Trivizas recalls how "as a child, every time a story that I was being told reached its end, I felt extremely disappointed. I wanted the story to continue and last forever and ever. To ease my withdrawal symptoms, I used to try to figure out what happened to the characters after the happy ending."

His childhood daydreams already showed signs of the whimsical iconoclasm that would later characterize his work: "I used to imagine that I visited the defeated dragon in his lair and bandaged his wounds, or that I challenged the prince to a duel, defeated him, and married Snowhite. Gradually, I started creating my own stories, like the story of a jack-in-the-box who wanted to run away from his box or the story of the piggy banks who are exploited by a devious piggy banker."

Success and crime
Success was initially elusive, as "publishers were initially reluctant to accept my work because it was difficult to determine the appropriate age range of readers." The difficulty ultimately proved to be a "commercial advantage, because those books are read by a much wider range of readers than usual, including adults. He notes that in his fan mail, he receives as many letters from adults as from children.

In parallel with his career as a children's book writer, Trivizas is a lawyer and academic who teaches criminology at England's Reading University . It may be that his two careers complement each other. "From very early in life," he says, "I was struggling to comprehend why some people are bad and others good, some sane and some crazy. I became a criminologist in order to unravel the answers to those questions."

Sure enough, Trivizas’ stories deal often with the interactions of good and bad, sane and crazy characters, although in this case they may be incarnated as crocodiles, cats, pigs, dragons, or witches, rather than, say, hooligans acting up at a soccer game – one of the phenomena Trivizas the criminologist has investigated.

Against corporate giants and stereotypes
Life and art also met in an almost literary manner when Trivizas took on corporate colossus Coca-Cola over the rights to a name, which the company was using for a fruit drink it was marketing in Greece, and which also happened to be the name Trivizas had given his popular comic book, radio show and cartoon series. The moniker in question? Fruitopia, coined by the author (who is famous for his turns of phrase and neologisms) out of the combination of "fruit" and "utopia".

The fictional Fruitopia is a land of fruits and vegetables that have thrown off the yoke of the oppressive corporate greengrocers who used to rule over them. But the newly independent country, (complete with an army of tough nuts, an artichoke nobility and oddball characters like Spill the Bean and Grapes of Wrath), is besieged by the devious Ebeneezer Squeeze of Fruit Squash International and Hamfrey Marmeladuke of United Jam Producers, who are angling to take over the Fruity utopia and put the squeeze on its juicy residents.

In the real world, Trivizas' Fruitopia beat the corporate challenge when, after two trials and much etymological debate, the court finally declared the name Trivizas' to be sole intellectual property.

Probably Trivizas' most successful book so far, (it reached number two in the US picture book bestseller list), is his topsy-turvy version of a traditional fairy tale, The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Typically, the story is a comical blend of the simple sentiments of a folk tale with oddly precise contemporary details, such as the pneumatic drill that the ornery pig uses to destroy the wolves' homes and the video security system the little wolves' install for their protection before the unexpected happy ending. It has gained recognition as a modern classic and has just been reissued in an anniversary pop-up edition.

Among the author's more recent books is Despina and the Dove , specially commissioned by the 2004 Olympics organizing committee to reflect the history of the Olympic Games and the Olympic ideal. His current project, called The Harlequin Butterfly, tells the story of a boy who wishes every day was his birthday and ends up old (at least temporarily), before his time.