Geoffrey Jenkins Books In Order

Publication Order of Geoffrey Peace Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Geoffrey Jenkins was a South African screenwriter, journalist, and novelist. Working with Eve Plamer his wife, he also penned numerous nonfiction works about Southern Africa.

The author was born to Daisy Jenkins and editor Ernest Jenkins in either Pretoria or Port Elizabeth South Africa.

When he was 17, he received a special eulogy at the Potchefstroom centenary celebrations for his work, “A Century of History,” which had an introduction by General Jan Smuts.

Jenkins would subsequently be a winner of the Lord Kemsley Commonwealth Journalistic Scholarship. He would then become a correspondent during the Second World War and worked on Fleet Street for several years.
It was while he was working for the Sunday Times that he befriended the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming. The latter praised Jenkins’ writing and said there were very few people who had his imagination and originality.
Following the end of World War II, he moved to Rhodesia which is where he met Eve Palmer his wife and they got married in 1950.

For a time, he edited “The Umtali Advertiser” before he left to go live in Johannesburg where he worked for “The Star” newspaper as a reporter.

It was while Geoffrey Ernest Jenkins was working for “The Star” newspaper that he wrote “A Twist of Sand,” which he published in 1959.

The novel would become so popular that it would be translated into more than two dozen languages, and would be made into a film starring Honor Blackman and Richard Johnson.
Nonetheless, he kept working as a reporter and writer for “The Star” and it was not until he published his third work that he quit.

Following the death of Ian Fleming, Glidrose Productions approached Ernest Jenkins to come up with a James Bond novel. According to the author he had worked with Fleming in 1957 to develop a diamond smuggling narrative.
After long negotiations, Jenkins was done writing the manuscript that was titled PerFine Ounce. This was ultimately rejected and for a time he lost all interest in writing and even lost the manuscript except for a few pages somewhere in his house.
Two pages from that manuscript have since been published on the official James Bond website.

In 1993, Geoffrey Jenkins published “A Daystar of Fear” his last novel. He would then move from Pretoria to Durban to live with his son David. He was making preparations to pen a sequel to his 1971 novel “Scend of the Sea” when he died.
Over the years, three of his novels have been adapted into film in addition to “A Twist of Sand.” Another of his works The River of Diamonds had been set for production since the 1960s but it never went into production.
Tom Selleck and Sylvester Stallone who were approached to be leads asked for so much money that the film was ultimately shelved.

Geoffrey Jenkins’ novel “A Twist of Sand” is a work set on the treacherous Skeleton Island and is set during the Second World War and the 1950s.

The lead is the skipper of a large fishing boat named Geoffrey Peace who has to work in some very choppy waters. While visiting a friend, there is a strange incident with a German tourist that leads back to the Second World War.
During World War II Peace had been a commander of the HMS Trout, a submarine who was charged with a top-secret and onerous assignment. He is to head to the waters off Southwestern Africa and destroy a new type of U-Boat.
The story then goes back to the 1950s where Peace and his boat’s crew are hired by a strange man. The man wants to be put on the coast so that he can go inland to the mountains to locate an onymacris beetle.

Alongside the man is a sinister bodyguard and female scientist who they soon discover is the only survivor of the U-Boat that had been destroyed. Things get interesting when Peace is kidnapped as they are taking three of their passengers ashore.
The author describes the vicious tides, currents, sunsets, and wrecked ships in great detail as the drama unfolds amongst the bare rock and sand of the unforgiving mountains.

“Scend of the Sea” by Geoffrey Jenkins is a work set on the Waratah, a crack passenger liner from the twentieth century. It had gone down in a raging storm off the South African coast in a tragedy that had not left behind any witnesses or survivors.
Fifty years later, a South African airliner went missing in that very spot without explanation or trace during a storm. The lead in the novel is Ian Fairlie, who has always been determined to solve the mystery of the passenger liner.
When the airliner goes missing in similarly strange circumstances, nothing will stop him. He knows that no oil exploration or shipping offshore would be safe until he resolves the mystery.

Facing gale-swept seas and official opposition, risking his life and career, Ian sets out to unravel the mystery. He is so dedicated that his superiors and friends come to fear that his quest is becoming an irrational obsession.
The only loyal person in his life is Tafline, the beautiful woman who stands by him despite all the threats of being discredited. Ultimately, they work together and seize an opportunity presented to result in an exciting climax.

Geoffrey Jenkins’ “A Bridge of Magpies” is an enthralling novel set during the Cold War.

The lead in the novel is Straun Weddell a British Navy captain. Since he left the Navy he has been the captain of a small sailing ship that takes cargo all over the Mediterranean.
He usually drinks heavily and whenever he can he finds female companionship just about anywhere he can.

When his mother falls ill, he is called back to South Africa and upon arrival, he immediately finds a job with his old boss. He is to become the steward of a ship to explore a reputed archeological site on the South West African coast.
What follows is a very unusual story that opens during the Second World War and features current international intrigue and sunken ships. You also get an interesting cast of characters, murders, and high adventure in an unusual location.