Actor, children's author and geek at Teddington Waterstone's (From Croydon Guardian)

Actor, children's author and geek at Teddington Waterstone's

10:00am Thursday 23rd August 2012 in Freetime By Maryse Farag

Bookworms and geeks alike have been invited to meet actor-turned-children’s author Andy Robb at Waterstone’s in Teddington this weekend.

Robb will be signing copies of his debut novel Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl.

It is the first instalment in the Geekhood series, which follows Archie, a 14-year-old boy who is a geek to his core. In the online gaming world, he is a level five mage, capable of summoning the undead.

But in reality, things are rather different.

With no rule book to navigate life’s big challenges, he captures the complexities of the teenage years as he tackles divorced parents, school bullies and bad hair days.

A beautiful girl enters his domain and Archie tells of his rollercoaster ride to woo her.

A self-proclaimed Devon-born geek, Robb trained as an actor and went on to appear in stage plays, TV dramas and films, such as the Woman in Black, with Daniel Radcliffe, in 2012, and Coronation Street as Brian Tilsley’s murderer.

While acting, he experiments with writing fiction as a personal challenge.

He says: “When you work as an actor, you have little power to say what you want, as you’re given the script and told what to say, so I wanted to reclaim some of that power.”

The book has been written in the comfort of his settee during the evenings in his cosy houseboat on the Thames. He adds: “I enjoyed the solitary aspect of it and the responsibility of creating characters. They could be funny or sad and can say what you mean.”

Andy Robb will be at Waterstone’s, High Street, Teddington, from 11am on Saturday, August 25.