Jeff Kinney holds a mirror up to childhood with Wimpy Kid series

When he decided he just wasn't good enough to be a newspaper cartoonist, Jeff Kinney decided he had to find another way to get his illustrations published. It would be the origins of publishing phenomenon, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, he tells Rowena Walsh.

Jeff Kinney’s books have sold 180 million copies, been made into four feature films, and are beloved by children throughout the world, but the author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid never thought for one second that he had written a story for younger readers.

He was sure that his debut novel was aimed at adults and belonged in the humour section of the bookshop.