Giles Andreae Books In Order

Publication Order of Purple Ronnie Books

Publication Order of Luke Lancelot Books

Publication Order of Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs Books

Publication Order of Pants Books

Publication Order of Billy Bonkers Books

Publication Order of World Of Happy Books

Publication Order of Nat Fantastic Books

Publication Order of Sir Scallywag Books

Publication Order of Children's Books

Giles Andreae is a British greeting card writer, poet, artist best known as the creator of the “Edward Monkton” and “Purple Ronnie” series. As a teenager, Giles went to the prestigious Eton College where he was friends with later British Prime Minister David Cameron. From Eton, he went to Oxford where he had a lot of difficulty in his studies after developing Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, just before he could take his exams. He would still get a second class honors degree and go on to become one of the most successful children’s book authors today.

Giles had always loved reading stories and by the time he was in primary school he had started writing stories. By the time he left Oxford where he studied English, he had published his first ever novel titled “Rumble in the Jungle” that instantly made headlines becoming a critically acclaimed book and attaining commercial success pretty fast. Since then Andreae has gone on to publish several more bestsellers such as “I Love Mummy” that won the Booktrust Early Years Award and Red House Book Award Winner “The Lion Who Wanted Love”. Over the years< his novels have sold more than three million copies all across the globe. He currently lives in South Oxfordshire with his wife Victoria and their four children Jackson, Nat, Freya, and Flinn.

Giles Andreae typically combines a playful style that can be inquisitive, amusing, philosophical, and even humorous in his writing of his characters. He loves the work of cartoonists David Shrigley and Michael Leunig, who share with him a preference for a naïve style of writing. His Edward Monkton series of novels typically address themes of friendship, love, happiness, and death, which he believes are some of the most important things in the world.



“Purple Ronnie” deals with less serious themes as the character himself is cheeky, naughty, and sometimes sentimental boy, which makes for a curious combination that has made him a children’s favorite. “Purple Ronnie” is actually Giles first venture into the writing of children’s fiction. He first came together with a friend to print the character on greeting cards and much to their surprise the sales took off. It was an innovative way of looking at greeting cards being iconoclastic and new. Unfortunately, no serious publisher wanted to publish alternative comedy on cards and hence the two friends had to resort to local marketing where they had shops sell them for ten pence a card. He credits the publishing of “Purple Ronnie” by a nondescript publisher as the platform that made it possible for him to launch his career. What made it even easier to handle the rejections was that they had nothing to lose and the venture was not their day job. During this time he was employed as an illustrator at an advertising agency and never thought he would become a full time illustrator. It was only when the royalties earner him more than his illustrator salary that he thought maybe a career as a comic writer and illustrator could be viable. He has never looked back since.

Giles Andreae is best known for the creation of “Edward Monkton” poetry and “Purple Ronnie” cartoon characters. Purple Ronnie is a T-shirt, greeting card and merchandise cartoon character. He is a simple stick-man character with a huge oval body and smiley face who is a comic poet that writes captions in the form of rhymes that may sometimes incorporate mildly taboo language. Purple Ronnie made his first appearance in greeting cards made in 1987 before he became huge in an advertising campaign by Vimto the soft drink company. Giles also created the “Edward Monkton” series under which he has several cartoons that include “Zen Dog”, the “Penguin of Death,” “The Pig of Happiness” that appeared in a range of merchandise and greeting cards.

“Giraffes Can’t Dance” is one of Giles Andreae’s most popular classics that has sold more than a million copies. The lead is Gerald the Giraffe who is an expert at munching shoots off of trees and standing still. However, Gerald what Gerald craved the most was to be a good dancer as nearly everyone in his patch of jungle was good at some form of dancing or the other. In the annual dances, the chimpanzees were great at the cha cha cha, the rhinos excelled at rock and roll, and the warthogs waltzed. Gerald always froze on the dance floor leaving his friends snickering and whistling at his lack of dance skills. He now finds himself lonely and sad lying down and gazing at the big yellow moon listening to the words of friendly and wise cricket. The cricket tells him that dancing may have something to do with song and that maybe he had yet to find his song. What started out as a sad and lonely night at the annual jungle dance now becomes one of a great performance by the giraffe that leaves his friends shocked at just how good he is. It is a great colorful book with eloquent rhymes that will entertain and thrill the reader, even as it explored themes of individuality, self-esteem, and self-confidence.

“Rumble in the Jungle” is an excellent children’s book with great rhymes and rhythms that will delight many children with it colorful illustrations. Right off the bat, the novel opens to the jungle animals getting up in the morning. The story comes with beautiful illustrations from David Wojtowycz that makes it easy to differentiate and spot the different animals when reading the story. The novels takes the form of having one animal’s story take up a page that is identified with the name of the animal in large print. This makes for great reading when combined with the rhyming of the words on each page. The rhymes differentiate between the characteristics of the different animals that make it easy for one to get into the shoes of the animals, which makes it great for acting out the silly voices of animals that children the world over will absolutely love doing. The book culminates with the coming of dusk and the descriptions of the animal activities that take place before they go to bed to let the animals of the night take their place.