Geoffrey Jenkins
Encyclopedia
Early life
Jenkins was born PretoriaPretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
. At the age of 17 he wrote and had published A Century of History which received a special eulogy from General Jan Smuts at the centenary of Potchefstroom.
He subsequently won the Lord Kemsley Commonwealth Journalistic Scholarship, which took him to Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
, where he spent World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a war correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
. While working for the Sunday Times he became friends with author Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
, the creator of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
secret agent James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
. Fleming later praised Jenkins' writing, saying "Geoffrey Jenkins has the supreme gift of originality... A Twist of Sand is a literate, imaginative first novel in the tradition of high and original adventure'".
After the war Jenkins settled in Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
, where he met his wife, author Eve Palmer (1916–1998). They married in 1950. He was the editor of the newspaper The Umtali Advertiser and eventually took up a position with The Star newspaper in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
.
Writing
It was while working for The Star that he wrote his first novel, A Twist of SandA Twist of Sand
A Twist of Sand is a 1968 British adventure film directed by Don Chaffey and starring Richard Johnson, Jeremy Kemp, Honor Blackman and Peter Vaughan.-Cast:* Richard Johnson as Geoffrey Peace* Honor Blackman as Julie Chambois* Jeremy Kemp as Harry Riker...
(1959), which was subsequently translated into 23 languages and became a motion picture in 1968
1968 in film
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
starring Richard Johnson
Richard Johnson (actor)
Richard Johnson is an English actor, writer and producer, who starred in several British films of the 1960s and has also had a distinguished stage career. He most recently appeared in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.-Life and career:...
and Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
. He kept his newspaper job until he had published his third novel.
Connection with James Bond
After Ian Fleming's death it was reported that Glidrose ProductionsIan Fleming Publications
Ian Fleming Publications is the production company formerly known as both Glidrose Productions Limited and Glidrose Publications Limited, named after its founders John Gliddon and Norman Rose...
commissioned Jenkins to write a James Bond novel in 1966. Jenkins claimed that he and Fleming together developed a diamond-smuggling storyline in 1957. After a long period of negotiation, during which Anne Fleming (Ian's widow) raised several objections to the idea of a continuation series
Robert Markham
Robert Markham is a pseudonym created by Glidrose Publications in the mid-1960s. By 1967, Glidrose, the publishers of the James Bond novel series created by Ian Fleming, had exhausted all available material written by Fleming before his death in 1964...
, Jenkins finished the manuscript for Glidrose entitled Per Fine Ounce
Per Fine Ounce
Per Fine Ounce is the title of an unpublished novel by Geoffrey Jenkins featuring Ian Fleming's James Bond. It was completed circa 1966 and is considered a "lost" novel by fans of James Bond because it was actually commissioned by Glidrose Productions, the official publishers of James Bond...
, but it was rejected. The novel is believed lost, except for 18 pages now in the hands of Jenkins' son David. Two pages have been released to the public and were exclusively published by the James Bond website MI6-HQ.com. Ian Fleming Publications (formerly Glidrose) allegedly returned their copies of the manuscript after rejecting it.
Jenkins' 1966 novel Hunter-Killer was a sequel to A Twist of Sand. It opens with the protagonist, Geoffrey Peace RN, faking his own death and funeral at sea, only to clamber aboard a submarine. It is strikingly similar to the pre-titles sequence of the James Bond film You Only Live Twice
You Only Live Twice (film)
You Only Live Twice is the fifth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fifth to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's screenplay was written by Roald Dahl, and loosely based on Ian Fleming's 1964 novel of the same name...
, which was released in 1967. No such scene took place in Ian Fleming's novel.
Film adaptations
Three of his novels have been filmed. A Twist of SandA Twist of Sand
A Twist of Sand is a 1968 British adventure film directed by Don Chaffey and starring Richard Johnson, Jeremy Kemp, Honor Blackman and Peter Vaughan.-Cast:* Richard Johnson as Geoffrey Peace* Honor Blackman as Julie Chambois* Jeremy Kemp as Harry Riker...
(1968) co-starred Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
and Richard Johnson
Richard Johnson
Richard Johnson may refer to:* Richard Johnson , romance writer* Richard Johnson , English actor* Richard Johnson , Australian architect...
; director Terence Young
Terence Young
Stewart Terence Herbert Young was a British film director best known for directing three films in the James Bond series, Dr. No , From Russia with Love , and Thunderball .-Biography:...
's original choice for James Bond. The River of Diamonds (1990) had been set for production in the 1960s. Dirty Games (1989), based on In Harm's Way, co-starred Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent is an American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf .-Early life:...
.
Novels
- A Twist of Sand (1959)
- The Watering-Place of Good Peace (1960; revised 1974)
- A Grue of Ice (1962) Published in the U.S. as The Disappearing Island.
- The River of Diamonds (1964)
- Hunter-Killer (1966)
- Scend of the Sea (1971) Published in the U.S. as The Hollow Sea.
- A Cleft of Stars (1973)
- A Bridge of Magpies (1974)
- South Trap (1979) Published in paperback as Southtrap.
- A Ravel of Waters (1981)
- The Unripe Gold (1983)
- Fireprint (1984)
- In Harm's Way (1986)
- Hold Down a Shadow (1989)
- A Hive of Dead Men (1991)
- A Daystar of Fear (1993)
Non-fiction
- A Century of History: The Story of Potchefstroom (1939; 2nd edition 1971)
- The Companion Guide to South Africa (1979), with Eve Palmer
Unproduced screenplay
- Fifth Paw of the Lion (1966, Columbia Pictures, Charles H. SchneerCharles H. SchneerCharles H. Schneer was a film producer most widely known for working with special effects pioneer, Ray Harryhausen. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia and died in Boca Raton, Florida, aged 88....
Productions)