Geoffrey McSkimming
As a child
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 was mesmerised by their activities in black-and-white Egypt, Peru, Greece, Mexico, Sumatra, Turkey and other exotic locations.
As an artist
Years later Geoffrey discovered the identities of the trio, and he 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 that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim – which have become the enormously successful Cairo Jim chronicles, selling over 300,000 copies worldwide.
Whilst researching the Cairo Jim books, Geoffrey has had sunstroke in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, ventured into the depths of the pyramids at Giza in Egypt, trekked through the Andes mountains to reach the abandoned city of Machu Picchu and camped in the cloud forests of Peru, visited many Greek temples over 4,000 years old, climbed the immense Mexican pyramids, safaried through the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and sweltered on Zanzibar island, sniffed around ruined cities like Ephesus and underground cities like KaymaklI in Turkey - to name a few memorable experiences!
When not writing the Cairo Jim chronicles, Geoffrey’s hobbies are archaeology, travelling, old books and recreating the past. An entertaining speaker, Geoffrey also appears regularly at events in full Cairo Jim costume!