Peter J. Murray

Peter J. Murray (born 1951) is a retired mathematics teacher and a children's author, famed for his Mokee Joe books.[1] He was brought up in a council estate in Rotherham, Yorkshire. Peter has two sons, Matthew and Simon, who illustrated his Mokee Joe books as well as his current Bonebreaker series.

Career

Peter trained as a metallurgist and graduated with a masters degree from Cambridge University in 1979. He chose to teach mathematics at Aston Comprehensive school. Since 1979, Peter has taught a number of schools, including Cheam, before becoming a full-time author. He spends a lot of his time touring round schools, both in the UK and abroad, giving presentations about his books and inspiring kids to read.

He then signed to Hodder and a released another trilogy including the bestselling Bonebreaker.

His cover illustrations are now done by Paul Davies, the illustrator who created some of Stephen King's covers, including It'. The internal illustrations are done by his son, the author and illustrator Simon Murray, also known for creating the well loved Icky Doo Dah character. To date the Mokee Joe series has sold over 500,000 copies worldwide.

Claims

Peter J. Murray has claimed that he got the name "Mokee Joe" from when he was playing hide and seek with his kids and when he was looking for them, he shouted "Mokee Joe is coming". In years time, he was reminded of Mokee Joe, so he decided to become a full-time author. Peter is in contact with Escape from Scorpion Island Series 1 adventurer James Holder as they met when Peter visited James's school. Peter has sold his rights to make a film of the Mokee Joe books. The film came out in late 2009.

Books

References

  1. ↑ "My class helped our teacher write a book". CBBC. 15 September 2004. Retrieved 23 September 2011.

External links