We can’t quite believe it has been a whole decade since the first adventure of Thorfinn the Very-Very-Nice-Indeed!

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Thorfinn the Nicest Viking,
author David MacPhail reflects on the inspiration behind his hilarious, action-packed series of early reader chapter books.

 

“Good day, my dear sir!”

It’s astonishing that ten whole years have passed since my polite Viking, Thorfinn, skipped merrily into the world.

Since then, I’ve written eight Thorfinn the Nicest Viking adventures. I’ve also written three separate adventures involving Velda, Thorfinn’s fierce, high-kicking bestie, (Velda the Awesomest Viking).

You can listen to their adventures on audiobook. You can read them in Persian if you like. Thorfinn was also short-listed for the LOLLIES (Laugh Out Loud Book Award).

 

How did Thorfinn begin?

Many years ago, I had an idea for a story about a young Viking who was the EXACT opposite of all the other rough, tough, mean-looking Vikings. He’s uncompromisingly nice. He helps old ladies across the street. He bakes scones and makes tea. And, most important of all, he outrages, confounds and embarrasses the other Vikings with his genteel antics.

Thorfinn was partly based  on me as a child. I was *ridiculously* polite. Please note, I went to a rough school in the west of Scotland, where politeness didn’t pay. To give you an idea of how polite I was, when we played football at break time, I used to apologise to people before trying to tackle them. As you can imagine, I didn’t get many tackles in! They tended to put me in goal where I could do less damage.

At the beginning, my idea was for just one little story, which became Thorfinn and the Awful Invasion. I sent my book to Floris, a fab indie publisher based in Edinburgh. I still remember the day I received their response, many months later, offering me a totally unexpected four-book deal. I don’t think I’ve ever jumped as high. I nearly did my back in. Now all I had to do was write the other books.

It was exciting, but daunting, staring down the barrel of a multi-book contract and a long series of deadlines. Fortunately, the clash between Thorfinn and his extremely impolite fellow Vikings provided lots of mileage for jokes and stories.

Over the years, I’ve had fun thinking up loads of situations where Thorfinn can annoy his fellow Vikings. He has ruined feasts, spoiled invasions, wrecked the Viking games and messed up their hunt for buried treasure. Meanwhile, Thorfinn’s best pal, Velda, has gone off on her own adventures, facing off with frost giants, legendary wolves and unicorns.

Illustrations from Velda the Awesomest Viking and the Voyage of Deadly Doom

I have Richard Morgan to thank for his amazing illustrations, which never fail to add humour. And to the awesome Kelpies team who have gone above and beyond with editing, design and marketing. Needless to say, if it wasn’t for all the brilliant kids out there, (and their parents), buying these books and taking them out of the library over the years, I would never have had the chance to write them.

 

HUZZAH!

The Vikingy adventures are far from done! Velda the Awesomest Viking and the Wild Unicorn Chase is out in May 2026!

 

 

 

Check out more books from the Thorfinn the Nicest Viking series:

Watch this space for more thrilling quests from
Velda the Awesomest Viking!