Cairo Jim
Encyclopedia
Cairo Jim is a popular series of children's books by author Geoffrey McSkimming
. They have been described as "epic" and "imaginatively written", and compared to the Boy's Own Paper
and the works of Agatha Christie
.
There are currently 18 books in the series. Additionally published is Cairo Jim's Bumper Book of Flabbergasting Fragments, a book of poems, short stories and puzzles for fans of the series. The Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood books are published in many different languages in the United Kingdom
, Australia
, Japan
, Korea
, Germany
, Italy
, Portugal
, Poland
, Russia
, Hungary
, and New Zealand
.
Geoffrey McSkimming
Geoffrey McSkimming is the author of the Cairo Jim chronicles and Jocelyn Osgood jaunts, a children's book series. Since publication of the first Cairo Jim story in 1991, the series has never gone out of print and has been translated and released in many countries throughout the world.McSkimming...
. They have been described as "epic" and "imaginatively written", and compared to the Boy's Own Paper
Boy's Own Paper
The Boy's Own Paper was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967.-Publishing history:The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society as a means to encourage younger children to read and also instil Christian morals...
and the works of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
.
There are currently 18 books in the series. Additionally published is Cairo Jim's Bumper Book of Flabbergasting Fragments, a book of poems, short stories and puzzles for fans of the series. The Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood books are published in many different languages in the United Kingdom
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...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
Characters
- Cairo Jim – The protagonist of the series, Cairo Jim is a well known archaeologist and little known poet. He lives in the fictional Valley of the Hairdressers in CairoCairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, along with his faithful animal companions Doris the talking macawMacawMacaws are small to large, often colourful New World parrots. Of the many different Psittacidae genera, six are classified as macaws: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Primolius, Orthopsittaca, and Diopsittaca...
and Brenda the wonder camelCamelA camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
. He is fond of wearing special desert sun spectacles and a pith helmetPith helmetThe pith helmet is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of cork or pith...
.
- Brenda the Wonder Camel - A camel from the Wonder Herd of Thebes, who possesses a remarkably broad knowledge of the world since accidentally swallowing a collection of encyclopediaEncyclopediaAn encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
s as a calf. A long-time friend of Jim's, she is an aficionado of the Melodious Tex adventure novels.
- Doris - Doris the macaw originally met Jim in Peru (see Cairo Jim on the Trail to ChaCha Muchos) and has been his travelling companion ever since. She can speak English, is an expert in ancient languages, and enjoys quoting the works of Shakespeare.
- Captain Neptune Flannelbottom Bone - The primary villain of the series, Bone is a former friend of Jim's, having attended archaeology school with him. He seeks to exploit the treasures and secrets of antiquity for his own gain, and is obsessed by plans of wealth, power, world domination and immortality. He is described as an overweight man with a neatly-clipped moustache and beard, who is fond of wearing waistcoats, plus foursPlus foursPlus fours are breeches or trousers that extend 4 inches below the knee...
, spats and fezzes in various garish and clashing colours. He takes extreme pride in his finely-manicured fingernails.
- Desdemona - A red-eyed, flea-ridden talking raven and an accomplice to most of Bone's dastardly plots.
- Jocelyn Osgood - A flight attendant with Valkyrian Airways, she is described as a "'good friend' of Cairo Jim" and occasionally helps him on his adventures. She also has a pilot's licence.
List of books
- Cairo Jim on the Trail to ChaCha Muchos
- Cairo Jim & Doris in Search of Martenarten
- Jocelyn Osgood - After the Puce Empress
- Cairo Jim and the Sunken Sarcophagus of Sekheret
- Jocelyn Osgood and the Xylophones above Zarundi
- Cairo Jim and the Alabastron of Forgotten Gods
- Cairo Jim and the Quest for the Quetzal Queen
- Jocelyn Osgood in Ascent into AsgardAsgardIn Norse religion, Asgard is one of the Nine Worlds and is the country or capital city of the Norse Gods surrounded by an incomplete wall attributed to a Hrimthurs riding the stallion Svadilfari, according to Gylfaginning. Valhalla is located within Asgard...
- Cairo Jim and the Secret Sepulchre of the SphinxSphinxA sphinx is a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head or a cat head.The sphinx, in Greek tradition, has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless...
- Cairo Jim Amidst the Petticoats of ArtemisArtemisArtemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
- Cairo Jim and the Lagoon of Tidal Magnificence
- Cairo Jim and the Tyrannical Bauble of Tiberius
- Cairo Jim and the Chaos from CreteCreteCrete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
- Cairo Jim and the Rorting of Rameses' Regalia
- Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood in Bedlam from BollywoodBollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
- Cairo Jim and the Sumptuous Stash of Silenus
- Cairo Jim at the Crossroads of OrpheusOrpheusOrpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
- Cairo Jim and the Astragals of Angkor