Geoffrey McSkimming
Geoffrey McSkimming (born 1 January 1962) is a children's novelist and poet. He is the author of the 19 volume Cairo Jim chronicles and Jocelyn Osgood jaunts and the new Phyllis Wong series of mystery novels.
McSkimming was born in Sydney, Australia. To write his Cairo Jim stories, he travelled to Egypt, Peru, Tanzania (including Zanzibar), Greece, Mexico, Turkey, Italy and Singapore and other locations. He is much in demand for author talks, and appears with his wife, the magician Sue-Anne Webster, to promote the Phyllis Wong mysteries series.
Geoffrey McSkimming has contributed to magazines and poetry anthologies and he has also narrated the Cairo Jim chronicles as audio books for Bolinda Publishing. He wrote five character tours which were performed in the galleries at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney, Australia, from 2000 through 2013. In June 2006 Geoffrey McSkimming undertook an author tour of the UK for Walker Books, who released ten titles in the Cairo Jim series in the UK. In 2007, Scholastic published Geoffrey McSkimming's book of verse, Ogre in a Toga and Other Perverse Verses. The audio version of this title, narrated by McSkimming, was shortlisted in the Audie Awards (US) in 2008.
Geoffrey McSkimming's 24th book, Phyllis Wong and the Pockets of the Shadows, was published in 2016 by 9 Diamonds Press. He is currently writing the fifth story in the Phyllis Wong mysteries series, due for publication in 2017.
All titles in the Cairo Jim chronicles are being e-published by 9 Diamonds Press, beginning with Cairo Jim on the Trail to ChaCha Muchos in 2016. A completely new Cairo Jim novel will appear in 2018.
Geoffrey McSkimming is represented by Curtis Brown Literary Agency, London and Sydney.
Books
- The Startling Tale of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (2016)
- Phyllis Wong and the Pockets of the Shadows (2016)
- Phyllis Wong and the Waking of the Wizard (2015)
- Phyllis Wong and the Return of the Conjuror (2014)
- Phyllis Wong and the Forgotten Secrets of Mr Okyto (2012)
- Ogre in a Toga and Other Perverse Verses (2008)
- Cairo Jim and the Astragals of Angkor (2007)
- Cairo Jim at the Crossroads of Orpheus (2006)
- Cairo Jim and the Sumptuous Stash of Silenus (2005)
- Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood in Bedlam from Bollywood (2004)
- Cairo Jim and the Rorting of Rameses' Regalia (2003)
- Cairo Jim and the Chaos from Crete (2002)
- Cairo Jim and the Tyrannical Bauble of Tiberius (2001)
- Cairo Jim and the Lagoon of Tidal Magnificence (2000; e-book 2016)
- Cairo Jim Amidst the Petticoats of Artemis (2000; e-book 2016)
- Cairo Jim and the Secret Sepulchre of the Sphinx (1999; e-book 2016)
- Jocelyn Osgood in Ascent into Asgard (1998)
- Cairo Jim and the Quest for the Quetzal Queen (1997; e-book 2016)
- Cairo Jim's Bumper Book of Flabbergasting Fragments (1996)
- Cairo Jim and the Alabastron of Forgotten Gods (1996; e-book 2016)
- Jocelyn Osgood and the Xylophones above Zarundi (1995)
- Cairo Jim and the Sunken Sarcophagus of Sekheret (1994; e-book 2016)
- Jocelyn Osgood - After the Puce Empress (1993)
- Cairo Jim on the Trail to ChaCha Muchos (1992; e-book 2016)
- Cairo Jim & Doris in Search of Martenarten (1991; e-book 2016)
His Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood books are published in many different languages in Australia, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Hungary, and New Zealand.
Inspiration
"When Geoffrey McSkimming was a boy he found an old motion-picture projector and a tin containing a dusty home movie in his grandmother's attic. He screened the film and was transfixed by the flickering image of a man in a jaunty pith helmet, baggy Sahara shorts and special desert sun-spectacles. The man had an imposing macaw and a clever looking camel, and Geoffrey Mcskimming was mesmerised by their activities in black-and-white Egypt, Peru, Greece, Mexico, Sumatra, Turkey, Italy and other exotic locations.
Years later he discovered the identities of the trio, and has spent much of his time since then retracing their footsteps, interviewing surviving members of the Old Relics Society, and gradually reconstructing the lost true tales of Cairo Jim, which have become the enormously successful Cairo Jim chronicles."[1]
References
- ↑ Text taken from Cairo Jim and the Sumptuous Stash of Silenus, published in Australia and New Zealand in 2005 by Hachette Children's Books Australia, an imprint of Hachette Livre Australia Pty Ltd. Copyright (C) Geoffrey McSkimming 2005
External links
- Official Geoffrey McSkimming website for the Phyllis Wong mysteries
- Official Geoffrey McSkimming website
- Official Geoffrey McSkimming website for the Cairo Jim chronicles
- 9 Diamonds Press