Joshua Mowll
Encyclopedia
Joshua Mowll is a British writer of children’s fiction. His award-winning The Guild of Specialists trilogy
has been published in 20 countries worldwide.
Mowll’s next book The Great Space Race was published in the UK on August 2, 2010
.
Walker Books
won the auction and Operation Red Jericho
was published in 2005, followed by Operation Typhoon Shore
in 2006, and Operation Storm City
in 2008 (May 2009 in the USA).
Mowll’s books are unusual for having extensive colour illustrations linked to proper novel length plots. The writer’s experience as a graphic artist for one of the UK’s national newspapers, The Mail on Sunday
, is clearly evident, with an abundance of pullout illustrations, cutaway technical drawings, sketches and maps.
There are also many photographs of characters, artefacts and ephemera connected to the story; extensive side notes and appendices support the text. The production values are exceptionally high.
is set in Asia in 1920 and follows the adventures of Becca and Doug MacKenzie hunting for clues to the mystery of why their parents went missing on a secret expedition to Sinkiang (Xinjiang
) in the remote desert wastes of western China
. It is very much Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown in genre, with secret societies, amazing weaponry and ripping-yarn villains.
In 1920, the heroes of the story Rebecca and Doug MacKenzie, leave Shanghai
aboard their uncle’s ship Expedient, intent on discovering the whereabouts of their missing parents who have disappeared while on a secret mission to the deserts of Western China.
Faced with terrifying bloodthirsty pirates, submarines and deadly torpedoes, their task quickly becomes a dangerous struggle to survive. Rebecca and Doug discover the answers they seek lie in a tangle of mysterious age-old societies guarding ancient secrets, and particularly a strange substance which lies at the heart of the mystery called Zoridium.
Imprisoned on a pirate island off the China coast and facing certain death, they must find a way to escape if they are to continue their desperate quest.
Book 2: Operation Typhoon Shore
.
The second book is separated from the first by only a few days. Becca and Doug’s journey continues, but now the stakes are even higher than before. Their uncle’s ship Expedient, partially wrecked during the battle with the pirate Sheng-Fat in Operation Red Jericho
, battles through a typhoon to pursue the evil Julius Pembleton-Crozier who has taken over an archipelago of islands in the Celebes Sea. He and his confederates have and built an extremely dangerous machine there powered by the strange substance zoridium, and they must be stopped.
A new array of deadly enemies and challenges face Becca and Doug. Vital clues to past and present must be found which will lead them to their ultimate goal - to discover the whereabouts of their parents.
Book 3: Operation Storm City
Operation Storm City is the final installment of the trilogy. From India
to the desert wastes of China, Becca and Doug must follow every clue and scrap of information discovered so far in their adventures to guide them to the truth about their missing parents. Old friends join them in new alliances, for Becca and Doug know now that they must find Ur-Can the fabled machine at the very heart of the story which is hidden deep in the Taklamakan Desert - the so-called ‘Desert of Death’. They now know Ur-Can holds the answers they seek, as it was the destination of their parents’ lost expedition. But Ur-Can has fallen into the hands of a mad Russian general intent on using the machine’s colossal power for his own evil ends. Becca and Doug are tested beyond anything they’ve so far endured in the trilogy as they try to conclude their gruelling quest.
won the prestigious Poppy Red Award for Innovation in Children’s Books at the British Book Trade Awards, (2006).
Operation Typhoon Shore
was listed one of the UK Government’s 160 recommended reads for teenage boys in 2007. The Times
, London 16.05.07
The books were well received, with Operation Red Jericho being the Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week during September 2005.
“Mowll’s genius, though, is in his clever mixing of old and new storytelling devices, and a clear and intelligent voice that should appeal to both girls and boys...” South China Morning Post
, Hong Kong 28/08/05
“...hypnotically packed with detail... ” Daily Telegraph, London 09.12.06
“...beware of the cheap imitations it will undoubtedly spawn.” The Guardian
, London 12.11.05
“Makes an Indiana Jones adventure look half asleep” The Ultimate Teen Book Guide
“A cracking adventure... Crammed with maps, blueprints and illustrations.” The Bookseller
, London
“A fascinating and witty mixture of factual and fictional detail which will have any half-awake child revisiting it time and again.” The Glasgow Herald, Scotland
“Presented as a mock journal with maps and diagrams, this is an intriguing debut set in Twenties Shanghai.” The Observer
, London
In June 2004 it was reported in Publishing News that Walker Books
had notched up its highest-ever rights sale in a fiercely contested auction for Japanese rights to Operation Red Jericho
. The book was sold to Sony Magazines Inc for an undisclosed six-figure sum.
Many of the foreign editions of the trilogy have kept with the design and illustrative content of the original, although in France the trilogy has been published by Flammarion
under alternative titles:
Les aventuriers du cercle, Tome 1 : Opération Zoridium
Les aventuriers du cercle, Tome 2 : Opération Typhon
Les aventuriers du cercle, Tome 3 : Opération Désert de la mort
.
The Guild of Specialists trilogy
The Guild of Specialists trilogy is a series of novels by children's author Joshua Mowll, published by Walker Books. The series follows the lives of Rebecca and Douglas MacKenzie in their quest to find their parents after they had gone missing on an expedition to the Sinkiang desert in China...
has been published in 20 countries worldwide.
Mowll’s next book The Great Space Race was published in the UK on August 2, 2010
The Guild of Specialists trilogy outline
The trilogy was the subject of an international bidding war in 2004. Publishers were sent boxes of artefacts and documents taken from an archive apparently bequeathed to Mowll by his recently deceased great aunt; the archive is said to have provided the material for the three books in The Guild of Specialists trilogyThe Guild of Specialists trilogy
The Guild of Specialists trilogy is a series of novels by children's author Joshua Mowll, published by Walker Books. The series follows the lives of Rebecca and Douglas MacKenzie in their quest to find their parents after they had gone missing on an expedition to the Sinkiang desert in China...
.
Walker Books
Walker Books
Walker Books is an independent British publisher of children's books, founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker.The success of their Where's Wally? series enabled them to expand into the American market, starting a sister company called Candlewick Press in 1991.Amelia Edwards, co-founder of Walker Books,...
won the auction and Operation Red Jericho
Operation Red Jericho
Operation Red Jericho is the first novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy by Joshua Mowll.- Plot summary :In 1920, the heroes of the story Rebecca and Doug McKenzie, leave Shanghai aboard their uncle's ship Expedient, intent on discovering the whereabouts of their missing parents who have...
was published in 2005, followed by Operation Typhoon Shore
Operation Typhoon Shore
Operation Typhoon Shore is the second novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy following Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll.-Plot summary:It continues the journey of Becca and Doug MacKenzie...
in 2006, and Operation Storm City
Operation Storm City
Operation Storm City is the third novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy by Joshua Mowll. It was published in the UK and France in the autumn of 2008. The US edition was released in hardcover on the May 12, 2009...
in 2008 (May 2009 in the USA).
Mowll’s books are unusual for having extensive colour illustrations linked to proper novel length plots. The writer’s experience as a graphic artist for one of the UK’s national newspapers, The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. First published in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it became Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper following the closing of The News of the World in July 2011...
, is clearly evident, with an abundance of pullout illustrations, cutaway technical drawings, sketches and maps.
There are also many photographs of characters, artefacts and ephemera connected to the story; extensive side notes and appendices support the text. The production values are exceptionally high.
Summary
The Guild of Specialists trilogyThe Guild of Specialists trilogy
The Guild of Specialists trilogy is a series of novels by children's author Joshua Mowll, published by Walker Books. The series follows the lives of Rebecca and Douglas MacKenzie in their quest to find their parents after they had gone missing on an expedition to the Sinkiang desert in China...
is set in Asia in 1920 and follows the adventures of Becca and Doug MacKenzie hunting for clues to the mystery of why their parents went missing on a secret expedition to Sinkiang (Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
) in the remote desert wastes of western China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. It is very much Indiana Jones meets Dan Brown in genre, with secret societies, amazing weaponry and ripping-yarn villains.
The books
Book 1: Operation Red JerichoOperation Red Jericho
Operation Red Jericho is the first novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy by Joshua Mowll.- Plot summary :In 1920, the heroes of the story Rebecca and Doug McKenzie, leave Shanghai aboard their uncle's ship Expedient, intent on discovering the whereabouts of their missing parents who have...
In 1920, the heroes of the story Rebecca and Doug MacKenzie, leave Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
aboard their uncle’s ship Expedient, intent on discovering the whereabouts of their missing parents who have disappeared while on a secret mission to the deserts of Western China.
Faced with terrifying bloodthirsty pirates, submarines and deadly torpedoes, their task quickly becomes a dangerous struggle to survive. Rebecca and Doug discover the answers they seek lie in a tangle of mysterious age-old societies guarding ancient secrets, and particularly a strange substance which lies at the heart of the mystery called Zoridium.
Imprisoned on a pirate island off the China coast and facing certain death, they must find a way to escape if they are to continue their desperate quest.
Book 2: Operation Typhoon Shore
Operation Typhoon Shore
Operation Typhoon Shore is the second novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy following Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll.-Plot summary:It continues the journey of Becca and Doug MacKenzie...
.
The second book is separated from the first by only a few days. Becca and Doug’s journey continues, but now the stakes are even higher than before. Their uncle’s ship Expedient, partially wrecked during the battle with the pirate Sheng-Fat in Operation Red Jericho
Operation Red Jericho
Operation Red Jericho is the first novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy by Joshua Mowll.- Plot summary :In 1920, the heroes of the story Rebecca and Doug McKenzie, leave Shanghai aboard their uncle's ship Expedient, intent on discovering the whereabouts of their missing parents who have...
, battles through a typhoon to pursue the evil Julius Pembleton-Crozier who has taken over an archipelago of islands in the Celebes Sea. He and his confederates have and built an extremely dangerous machine there powered by the strange substance zoridium, and they must be stopped.
A new array of deadly enemies and challenges face Becca and Doug. Vital clues to past and present must be found which will lead them to their ultimate goal - to discover the whereabouts of their parents.
Book 3: Operation Storm City
Operation Storm City
Operation Storm City is the third novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy by Joshua Mowll. It was published in the UK and France in the autumn of 2008. The US edition was released in hardcover on the May 12, 2009...
Operation Storm City is the final installment of the trilogy. From India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to the desert wastes of China, Becca and Doug must follow every clue and scrap of information discovered so far in their adventures to guide them to the truth about their missing parents. Old friends join them in new alliances, for Becca and Doug know now that they must find Ur-Can the fabled machine at the very heart of the story which is hidden deep in the Taklamakan Desert - the so-called ‘Desert of Death’. They now know Ur-Can holds the answers they seek, as it was the destination of their parents’ lost expedition. But Ur-Can has fallen into the hands of a mad Russian general intent on using the machine’s colossal power for his own evil ends. Becca and Doug are tested beyond anything they’ve so far endured in the trilogy as they try to conclude their gruelling quest.
Reaction
On publication Operation Red JerichoOperation Red Jericho
Operation Red Jericho is the first novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy by Joshua Mowll.- Plot summary :In 1920, the heroes of the story Rebecca and Doug McKenzie, leave Shanghai aboard their uncle's ship Expedient, intent on discovering the whereabouts of their missing parents who have...
won the prestigious Poppy Red Award for Innovation in Children’s Books at the British Book Trade Awards, (2006).
Operation Typhoon Shore
Operation Typhoon Shore
Operation Typhoon Shore is the second novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy following Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll.-Plot summary:It continues the journey of Becca and Doug MacKenzie...
was listed one of the UK Government’s 160 recommended reads for teenage boys in 2007. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, London 16.05.07
The books were well received, with Operation Red Jericho being the Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week during September 2005.
The Guild of Specialists trilogy reviews
“This is not just an adventure story; it is a designer object...” Sunday Times, London 25.09.05“Mowll’s genius, though, is in his clever mixing of old and new storytelling devices, and a clear and intelligent voice that should appeal to both girls and boys...” South China Morning Post
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post , together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an English-language Hong Kong newspaper, published by the SCMP Group with a circulation of 104,000....
, Hong Kong 28/08/05
“...hypnotically packed with detail... ” Daily Telegraph, London 09.12.06
“...beware of the cheap imitations it will undoubtedly spawn.” The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, London 12.11.05
“Makes an Indiana Jones adventure look half asleep” The Ultimate Teen Book Guide
“A cracking adventure... Crammed with maps, blueprints and illustrations.” The Bookseller
The Bookseller
The Bookseller is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Neill Denny is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine, while Philip Jones is deputy editor, having recently been promoted from the position of managing editor of the Bookseller.com...
, London
“A fascinating and witty mixture of factual and fictional detail which will have any half-awake child revisiting it time and again.” The Glasgow Herald, Scotland
“Presented as a mock journal with maps and diagrams, this is an intriguing debut set in Twenties Shanghai.” The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, London
International publication
The books have been published in over 20 countries worldwide.In June 2004 it was reported in Publishing News that Walker Books
Walker Books
Walker Books is an independent British publisher of children's books, founded in 1978 by Sebastian Walker.The success of their Where's Wally? series enabled them to expand into the American market, starting a sister company called Candlewick Press in 1991.Amelia Edwards, co-founder of Walker Books,...
had notched up its highest-ever rights sale in a fiercely contested auction for Japanese rights to Operation Red Jericho
Operation Red Jericho
Operation Red Jericho is the first novel in The Guild of Specialists trilogy by Joshua Mowll.- Plot summary :In 1920, the heroes of the story Rebecca and Doug McKenzie, leave Shanghai aboard their uncle's ship Expedient, intent on discovering the whereabouts of their missing parents who have...
. The book was sold to Sony Magazines Inc for an undisclosed six-figure sum.
Many of the foreign editions of the trilogy have kept with the design and illustrative content of the original, although in France the trilogy has been published by Flammarion
Flammarion
Flammarion may refer to:* Camille Flammarion , French astronomer* Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion , French astronomer, wife of Camille Flammarion* The Flammarion engraving by unknown artist; appeared in a book by Camille Flammarion...
under alternative titles:
Les aventuriers du cercle, Tome 1 : Opération Zoridium
Les aventuriers du cercle, Tome 2 : Opération Typhon
Les aventuriers du cercle, Tome 3 : Opération Désert de la mort
Future projects
Mowll's next book called The Great Space Race, publishes in the UK on 2 August 2010. It is unrelated to The Guild of Specialists trilogyThe Guild of Specialists trilogy
The Guild of Specialists trilogy is a series of novels by children's author Joshua Mowll, published by Walker Books. The series follows the lives of Rebecca and Douglas MacKenzie in their quest to find their parents after they had gone missing on an expedition to the Sinkiang desert in China...
.